Josquin Larsen, performer, educator, and scholar of the viola, has engaged with audiences across North America and Europe. As an orchestral musician, he plays with and has held leadership positions with groups including the Arkansas and Shreveport Symphonies, the Utah Festival Opera Orchestra, the Louisville Ballet, and the Orchestre du Creusot (France). Chamber music has allowed him to connect with diverse audiences throughout the US and abroad – from chamber music series in the Mid-South, to the 2018 American Viola Society Festival in Los Angeles. In recital, Josquin is committed to putting into dialogue the works of marginalized and underrepresented composers with the traditional repertoire. 

 

He has served on the faculties of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and Arkansas State University. Josquin works with young musicians through masterclasses, leading sectionals with area youth and honor orchestras, as a clinician, and has spent summers teaching viola at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. 

 

Josquin’s research focuses on a holistic, contextual view of the viola, its repertoire, and its interpretation from historical (performance practice) and contemporary vantage points. His articles have appeared in journals such as the Journal of the American Viola Society and the College Music Symposium. An improviser and proponent of non-idiomatic improvisation, Josquin leads workshops that aim to dismantle self-perpetuated barriers and free creativity for classical and amateur musicians alike. 

 

Josquin's principal viola teachers include Patricia McCarty and Kazuko Matsusaka.