Richard Wolfe

Richard Wolfe was born and raised in New York City. He studied violin with Aaron Shapinsky and Dorothy DeLay, and graduated from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio in the class of Walter Levin (primarius of the LaSalle Quartet). 

Richard then spent five years in Israel, and was for three years a member of the Israel Chamber Orchestra.  It was during this time, and at the request of chief conductor Rudolph Barshai, that he began to play the viola as a serious endeavor. 

In 1982 Richard moved to Amsterdam ,  and joined the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra (NKO) in 1984, where he was appointed solo violist in 1986.  Since then, he has appeared numerous times as soloist with the NKO, both in the Netherlands and abroad.  In the season 2016-17 Richard is scheduled to perform and record Mozart's 'Symfonie Concertante' with the NKO and its artistic leader, Gordan Nikolić. 

He teaches viola at the conservatories of Utrecht and Amsterdam, and he is a passionate chamber music player, having collaborated with artists such as Sergiu Luca and Roel Dieltiens, as well as being a member of the Bellamy String Quartet.

Richard plays on an anonymous Milanese viola built around 1800, and also owns, and is enjoying discovering, a new viola made by the Amsterdam luthier Bengt Widlund.