Canadian-born violinist Lara St. John has been described as “something of a phenomenon” by The Strad, and as a “high-powered soloist” by The New York Times. 

She has performed as a soloist with the orchestras of Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, and with the Boston Pops, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Symphony, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Amsterdam Symphony, Brazilian Symphony, Sao Paulo Symphony, China Philharmonic, Hong Kong Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Kyoto Symphony, and the orchestras of Brisbane, Adelaide, and Auckland, among many others. 

St. John has traveled to Latin America for appearances with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, the Sao Paulo Symphony, Rio de Janeiro’s Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, SODRE in Montevideo, and the Sociedad Filarmónica de Lima in Peru. 

The Los Angeles Times wrote “Lara St. John happens to be a volcanic violinist with a huge, fabulous tone that pours out of her like molten lava. She has technique to burn and plays at a constant high heat.” 

St. John created her own label, Ancalagon, in 1999, and has recorded with the Royal Philharmonic, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, and The Knights, for which she won the Juno award in 2011 for her Mozart album. Her Bach: The Six Sonatas and Partitas album was the best-selling double album on iTunes in 2007. 

In 2014, her Schubert album with Berlin Philharmonic harpist Marie- Pierre Langlamet, cellist Ludwig Quandt, and soprano Anna Prohaska was chosen as one of The Best CDs of Spring by Der Tagsesspiegel. MDR Figaro recommended the album for its “boundless enchantment.” Her 2015 album: Shiksa, had All About Jazz saying “Music like this is beyond imagination and talent. It exists only in the loosely-held molecules found on the razor’s edge of Creation.”

St. John began playing the violin when she was two years old. She made her first appearance as soloist with orchestra at age four, and her European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra when she was 10. She toured Spain, France, Portugal, and Hungary at ages 12 and 13, entered the Curtis Institute at 13, and spent her first summer at Marlboro three years later. Her teachers have included Felix Galimir and Joey Corpus. 

She performs on the 1779 Salabue Guadagnini.