Travis Maril

Praised for his “apt eloquence” and “persuasive, stylish ardor” (San Diego Story), violist Travis Maril is an accomplished chamber musician and innovative pedagogue.

As violist of the Hyperion Quartet, he was a top-prize winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and performed on NPR’s Performance Today. Additional chamber music collaborators have included members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Miró Quartet, and principal players of the Cleveland Orchestra, LA Phil, Dallas, San Diego and Pittsburgh Symphonies.

In 2021, Travis won the gold medal in the Violympics, an online competition of over a hundred violinists and violists organized by Boston Symphony Concertmaster Nathan Cole, with a panel of judges including Augustin Hadelich, James Ehnnes and Gil Shaham. Travis also won prizes at the La Jolla Young Artists Competition and the Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition, the latter win resulting in a performance of Walter Piston’s Viola Concerto with the Aspen Music Festival Conducting Academy Orchestra. Other festival appearances include La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Schleswig-Holstein, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Ojai, the Banff Institute and Mainly Mozart.

Travis has recorded numerous contemporary works for Naxos, New World Records and Onyx Lane Records. As violist of Camarada, a San Diego-based chamber music group, he has performed numerous world premieres, including works by Andres Martin, Gilad Cohen, Stefan Cwik and others. He has also performed frequently as a violist with Art of Elan, including premieres by Jonathan Bailey Holland and Joel P. West.

Outside the classical realm, Travis has performed and recorded with the jazz pianist Danny Green’s Trio, the chamber folk band The Tree Ring, and a variety of other independent artists. He is featured in a number of film and television scores written by Joel P. West, including Just Mercy (starring Brie Larson, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx), Short Term 12 (starring Rami Malek and Brie Larson) and Netflix’s Chef’s Table.

Travis taught at San Diego State University’s School of Music and Dance for nearly two decades, serving as String Coordinator, Viola Instructor and Undergraduate Advisor. During his time at SDSU he performed as soloist with the SDSU Symphony Orchestra in Vaughan Williams’ Flos Campi and Paganini’s Sonata for the Grand Viola. At SDSU, Travis co-founded the String Academy, a pre-college program for string students. He was awarded Outstanding SDSU Music Faculty Member in 2021.
Travis writes regularly on topics in string pedagogy on his blog, String Theory. Since 2021 he has led online workshops and educational programs through his website www.travis-maril.com, working with hundreds of violists from all over the world. In the summers he has taught at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, Interharmony (Italy), San Diego Summer Music Institute and the Hausmann Chamber Music Program.

Travis was a Trustee Scholar and Outstanding Graduate at the University of Southern California, where he studied with Donald McInnes and Ralph Fielding and completed the Thematic Option Honors Program. He earned his Masters Degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, working with Karen Ritscher. Other important musical mentors include James Dunham, Che-Yen Chen, Nathan Cole and Paul Coletti.