About.
Violist Liam DeRosa, age 19, is a first-year undergraduate student in Viola Performance at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he studies with Professor Masumi Per Rostad. At Eastman, he is co-principal viola of the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, and performs chamber music with his string quartet. Passionate about historical performance, Liam performs on Baroque Viola with Eastman’s Collegium Musicum and Baroque Chamber Music Ensembles. He has performed nationally and internationally as a chamber and orchestral musician. Originally from Cranston, Rhode Island, Liam began his musical journey at the age of 6 on piano, then added violin at age 7 and viola at age 10, later dedicating himself to that instrument as a high school student of Professor Michelle LaCourse, Viola Professor and String Department Chair of the Boston University School of Music. Other formative private teachers have included Laura Gulley, Abby Magoon, Daniel Doña, Erin Quinton, and Jessica Valentino. Liam served as Co-Principal Viola of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Symphony Orchestra for the entirety of his high school career, and has performed as both a violist and violinist in the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Chamber Music Program, which included performing as part of the Honors Piano Quintet for the 2023-2024 Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director Search. Liam performs as an active freelance musician in the Southern New England Area during his brief stays back home in Rhode Island. Liam has spent his summers at several music festivals, including the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) Young Artists Orchestra and String Quartet Workshop, Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), the Ascent International Viola Festival studying with Masumi Per Rostad, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival studying with Carol Rodland. Liam will return to Bowdoin for the 2026 summer season, where he will work with Che-Yen Chen. He served as Principal (2023) and Assistant Principal Viola (2022) of the BUTI Young Artists Orchestra, and Assistant Principal Viola for the NYO-USA 2024 South American Tour to Uruguay at Montevideo’s Auditorio Nacional de Sodre, Argentina at Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, and Brazil at Rio de Janeiro’s Teatro Municipal and Sala São Paulo. Liam has performed in solo and chamber music masterclasses for Boston Symphony Orchestra Principal Violist Steven Ansell, Paul Laraia of the Catalyst Quartet, Philadelphia Orchestra Assistant Principal Violist Kerri Ryan, and the Jasper String Quartet. Liam’s awards and honors include being selected as a recipient of the 2024 Anthony Quinn Foundation Scholarship, Winner of the 2022/23 Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School Concerto Competition, performing with the 2022 NAfME All-National Honor Symphonic Orchestra, and Merit Prize Winner in the 2023 National YoungArts Competition. Liam was the inaugural First Prize Winner of Music on the Hill’s Scholarship Competition in 2023, and will perform as a member of their ensemble for the 2026 summer season. He was featured in the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and Music School’s 2023 Gala Fund video, “Beautiful Imperfection.”
