Espen Lilleslåtten, viola

   
    Espen Lilleslåtten is currently professor of violin at Louisiana State University, a post to which he was appointed in 2009. Prior to that he was concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway for sixteen years. Lilleslåtten began studying the violin at age five with his father, then violist with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.
    He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Norwegian State Academy of Music; his Master of Music degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Camilla Wicks; and an Artist Diploma in chamber music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a student of Ian Swensen. Lilleslåtten has participated in music festivals worldwide, among them Finland’s Kuhmo Festival, the Lapland Festival in Sweden, the Banff Festival for the Arts in Canada and the Aspen Music Festival, where he has been an artist-faculty member since 1998.
    Among the artists with whom he has performed chamber music are the late Isaac Stern, Menahem Pressler, Sylvia Rosenberg, Bonnie Hampton, Natalia Gutman, Lynn Harrell, Joshua Bell, and Joel Krosnick. Lilleslåtten has had many appearances as soloist with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and performs regularly in recitals both in Europe and in the United States.