Francesca dePasquale

Biography

Celebrated for “sincerity, intensity, and individual voice” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “immaculate and discreet phrasing” (Strad Magazine), violinist Francesca dePasquale is the First Prize winner of the 2010 Irving M. Klein International String Competition, as well as recipient of the 2014–16 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts and 2015 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award. She has been featured in Strings and The Strad magazine; on SiriusXM, WNYC, WQXR, WRTI, and WFMT radio; and on BIS as well as New Leaf records.

An active chamber musician, dePasquale is the violinist of the Aletheia Piano Trio alongside pianist Fei-Fei and cellist Juliette Herlin. She is a member of the artist roster for Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston and Manhattan Chamber Players, having previously performed with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to performing and teaching, dePasquale is the creator of Hypermobile Musician, an online resource for musicians with hypermobility and educators who wish to learn more about teaching hypermobile musicians. Hypermobile Musician has been featured in The Strad, Presto Music, and the American String Teacher Association National Conference.

Francesca joined the violin faculty at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2020, having previously taught at The Juilliard School for over a decade as a member of the violin and chamber music faculty for the pre-college program and as assistant violin faculty for the college division. Additionally, dePasquale previously taught at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts. She has taught at the Heifetz International Music Institute, Perlman Music Program, Kneisel Hall, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Domaine Forget, and Ascent Music, and was a masterclass artist for the Starling-DeLay Symposium and American String Teacher Association. DePasquale served as the Starling Fellow teaching assistant to Itzhak Perlman from 2013–16 and teaching assistant to Catherine Cho from 2013–18 at the Juilliard School. She was a visiting faculty member at Oberlin in fall 2018.

A graduate of the Juilliard and Colburn Schools, Francesca studied with Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Robert Lipsett. Previous teachers include Hirono Oka, Charles Parker, and William dePasquale, with additional mentorship from Norman Carol and Arnold Steinhardt.