Elizabeth Pitcairn

Elizabeth Pitcairn (born December 5, 1973) is a renowned American classical violinist who is noted for performing on the 1720 Red Mendelssohn Antonio Stradivari violin. In addition to a solo career, she is the President and Artistic Director of the Luzerne Music Center in Lake Luzerne, New York. Background Elizabeth Pitcairn was born into a musical family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Mary Eleanor Pitcairn (née Brace), is a Juilliard trained cellist, and her father, Laren Pitcairn, trained to be an opera singer. Her great grandfather John Pitcairn Jr., a Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist, was the co-founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. Pitcairn began to play the violin at the age of three, and credits her mother with the roots of her success. “I owe everything I am to my mother, who with extreme perseverance taught me and guided me musically.” After attending the Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania, Pitcairn graduated from the University of Southern California where she later taught alongside her former teacher, the renowned violin professor Robert Lipsett. She also taught violin at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.