Violinist Ryan Meehan has been hailed for his “singing tone” (New York Times) and his “remarkably polished and sophisticated playing” (Chicago Tribune). As a member of the Calidore String Quartet, he is a recipient of a BBC Music Magazine Award, Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He also toured internationally alongside violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter as part of her Virtuosi ensemble. Ryan regularly performs in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, Berlin Konzerthaus, and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and at festivals, including the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Music@Menlo, Rheingau, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. With the Calidore, he has released nine commercial recordings including a recent release of the late Beethoven String Quartets.
As a soloist, Ryan has garnered top prizes in competitions, including the Washington International Competition, ASTA National Solo Competition, and NFAA Young Arts. He has performed as soloist with the Colburn Orchestra and the Bellingham Festival Orchestra, and played recitals throughout North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. As a chamber musician, he won grand prize at the $100,000 M-Prize, Coleman, Chesapeake, and St. Paul chamber music competitions, as well as prizes at the ARD Munich, Hamburg, and Fischoff competitions. He has collaborated with such esteemed musicians as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Julia Fischer, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Anthony McGill, Lawrence Power, and the members of the Emerson and Ebène String Quartets.
Ryan serves on the faculty of the University of Delaware School of Music as Associate Professor of Violin and co-directs the UD Graduate Fellowship Quartet Program and Calidore String Quartet Seminar. He also served as the String Chamber Music Director at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater, and Dance and Artist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto and Stonybrook University. In response to the 2020 summer festival cancellations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Ryan co-founded the Virtuosi Virtual Summer Academy (VVSA), which connected a diverse group of young violinists and pianists with the world’s leading solo, chamber, and orchestral musicians. In the summer season, he serves on the faculty of Music@Menlo Chamber Music Institute and Center Stage Strings at the University of Michigan.
A dedicated teacher, Ryan’s violin students have won top prizes and awards in national and international violin competitions such as the Klein, Cooper, Sphinx, Concert Artist Guild Competitions (Grand Prize), and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. They have been invited to prestigious summer festivals such as the Verbier Festival Academy, Perlman Music Program, and Music@Menlo, performed as soloist with numerous orchestras, and were accepted to prestigious collegiate conservatory programs such as the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, Colburn School, and the Harvard/New England Conservatory dual degree program. His students perform professionally as soloists, chamber musicians, and in orchestras across the world.
Ryan is a graduate of the Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles and the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. His teachers include Almita and Roland Vamos, Robert Lipsett, Arnold Steinhardt, Julia Fischer, and Günther Pichler, with significant influence from Ana Chumachenco. He plays a violin by Vincenzo Panormo c. 1775 and is sponsored generously by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna.
Email: ryan.s.meehan@gmail.com
Instagram: @rmeehanvln