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After performing for decades around the globe as a “high-powered soloist” (The New York Times), Canadian-born violinist Lara St. John has chosen to dispense with a conventional biography, preferring instead to offer the following personal statement:
“I began playing the violin when I was two years old and have continued to do so ever since. But even though my career has had many high points and offered real artistic satisfaction, I cannot honestly say I would do it all over again. It has required horrific sacrifices – including my experiences with child sexual abuse and being treated as little more than a commodity by a long list of presenters, administrators and so-called educators.
“Rampant misogyny continues to be depressingly commonplace in the world of classical music, incredibly, even as we fumble our way toward the middle of the 21st century. This has drained away a lot of the sheer joy of making music for me.
“At the same time, I have made some wonderful friends in this business. I will always have faith in them and in the profound power of music to inspire and to heal. I will never stop being amazed by the possibility within a simple instrument like the violin. But my desire to use it as a tool for making a living has fallen off to almost nothing.”
Lara has performed as a soloist with most of the world’s major orchestras. She also owns her own recording label, Ancalagon, which she founded in 1999. In 2022, she released she/her/hers, her label’s 16th album, featuring solo violin works by women. After going public with her own experience of being raped by her professor at the Curtis Institute of Music when she was 14 years old, Lara heard from many other survivors of abuse at the hands of music teachers, conductors and colleagues, with the complicity of their respective institutions. She is now in the process of making Dear Lara, a documentary film on this subject.
In 2021 Lara was invested with the Order of Canada, her country’s highest honor. She is a knight of Burgundy and a reptile enthusiast. She owns and performs on a 1779 Guadagnini, a 2011 David Wiebe and a 2024 Isabelle Wilbaux.