granddaughter of composer Roy Harris, was born in Berkeley, California where she began her violin lessons with Anne Crowden. Her studies continued at the Cincinnati Conservatory and at the Juilliard School in New York with Dorothy DeLay, and in Europe with Alberto Lysy, Sandor Vegh, Ana Chumachenko and Sir Yehudi Menuhin. At age sixteen she made her debut in Berlin playing Baber`s Violin Concerto and since then has been a regular guest with such orchestras as the San Francisco Symphonie, the Orchestre de Paris, Cincinnati Philharmonia, the Jerusalem Symphonie Orchestra. She is a founding member of the Menuhin Festival Piano Quartet and Trio Kreisleriana. Her chamber music activities have brought her to many of the world`s capitals, including Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, Paris, Milano, Zürich, Geneva, Edinburgh, Washington D.C., New York, Boston, San Francisco and Sidney. Ms. Chastain´s recordings include sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven, Faurè, Debussy, many works for piano trio and quartet as well as Bartok`s second violin concerto. She has been a prize winner at serveral competitions including the Menuhin Competition in Paris 1985 . In 1993 she was awarded the prestigious annual "Förderpreis der Europäischen Wirtschaft" in Zürich as soloist. An active teacher, Nora Chastain is Professor of violin at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and Zürich-Winterthur.
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