Canadian violist, Dr. Angela Pickett has enjoyed an incredibly vast and varied performance
career. Since her first international tour as a violinist and fiddler with Irish tenor John McDermott
at age 18, Angela has performed consistently, and is adept in a multitude of performance styles
and settings.
After completing an undergraduate degree in Viola Performance and Music History at the
Memorial University of Newfoundland with Dr. Nancy Dahn, Angela moved to New York City to
pursue a Masters Degree at The Juilliard School, studying with Samuel Rhodes. Following her
time at Juilliard, Angela completed a Doctor of Musical Arts at the Manhattan School of Music,
studying with Michael Tree and Karen Dreyfus, and spent her summers at the Banff Center for
the Arts, Tanglewood Music Institute, The Britten-Pears Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival.
In 2008, Angela was able to combine her love of chamber and contemporary music in a new
string quintet: Sybarite5. Over the following twelve years she toured and performed extensively
across the US and internationally in venues ranging from the Library of Congress and Carnegie
Hall, to National Sawdust and Le Poisson Rouge. She has given viola lessons, chamber music
masterclasses, and entrepreneurship seminars at countless arts institutions and festivals across
the US, including The Curtis Institute, New England Conservatory of Music, Ravinia, Caramoor,
Wolf Trap, Grand Teton, The Aspen Music Festival and Interlochen Arts Academy.
In June 2020, Angela became a founding member of NYC-based string quartet, The Overlook.
Described as “breathtaking”, and “paradigm-shifting” (New York Music Daily), The Overlook has
emerged as a unifying, community-building force, whose dedication to a more representative
musical tradition reverberates throughout the industry. The quartet has recently performed at
NYC’s Lincoln Center, GatherNYC, Symphony Space, Fotografiska, and Wave Hill. Further
afield, they have performed at Chatter ABQ, Chatter PDX, WOCO Fest, The Arts Club of DC,
Music for Montauk, Mass MoCA, LeHigh University, Vermont Chamber Music Society, Taos
Chamber Music Group, Iris Collective, and Tuckamore Festival in NL, Canada. The Overlook
has recently completed three recording projects: their debut quartet album featuring new music
for string quartet by living composers, a collaboration with jazz saxophone legend Joe Lovano,
and an album featuring the music of Portland-based composer and violist Kenji Bunch.
Angela is based in NYC, where she maintains a busy freelance career performing clamber
music, playing on a variety of private and commercial recording projects, and playing violin,
viola and fiddle in various Broadway shows. She is also a Music Director and Chamber Music
Coach for Holland America’s “Lincoln Center Stage”.
