A founding member of the Parker String Quartet, violist Jessica Bodner has established herself as one of the leading violists of her generation. As a soloist, she has appeared in Jordan Hall, Rice University’s Stude Hall, the Gewandhaus Recital Hall, and Leipzig’s Contemporary Arts Museum (Germany), and with ensembles such as New England Conservatory’s Jordan Winds, the Clear Lake Symphony Orchestra (Texas), and Houston School’s for Performing and Visual Arts Symphony. Ms. Bodner has also premiered Matthias Truniger’s Spins for solo viola in Jordan Hall, and been presented at the International Viola Congress (2004) as part of a viola quartet made up of past students of Kim Kashkashian.

As an orchestral musician, Bodner has been a member of the Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine), the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bachfest Leipzig Orchestra (Germany), and has performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Bodner began her musical studies with the violin at the age of two in her native Houston, TX, and then switched to viola at the age of twelve. Her teachers have included Lawrence Wheeler and Kim Kashkashian. Ms. Bodner is currently a graduate student at the New England Conservatory where she studying with Martha Strongin Katz as the recipient of the Lotte M. Crabtree Scholarship.