Carol Lahti
Carol Lahti comes from a family of professional musicians and has played violin most of her life. She received her Master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music as a scholarship pupil of Charles Castleman and attended the Aspen Music Festival as the recipient of a three-year fellowship to study with Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki. A six-year member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Carol served two of those years as concertmaster. Currently the assistant concertmaster of the Chicago Sinfonietta, she has performed numerous European and American tours with the orchestra. She has recorded for the Fanfare and Cedille record labels, and can be heard on the WFMT Live from Studio One broadcast series. Additionally, she is the concertmaster of the Kenosha Symphony. Carol performs frequently with jazz and society bands in Chicago; she is particularly proud of her affiliation with the Chris Sarlas Orchestra, one of the premiere ensembles in the area. She also enjoys playing in theater orchestras, appearing with ballet companies such as the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theater and the Bolshoi Ballet, as well as in many Broadway musicals and shows. As a freelance artist, Carol performs with several orchestras in the Chicago area including Symphony II, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, and the Woodstock Mozart Festival. Recently, she has appeared on several WTTW Soundstage concerts with Lyle Lovett, Burt Bacharach, Ronald Isley, Amy Grant and Peter Cetera. Carol has also been seen performing with Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Sarah Brightman, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Barry Manilow and Clay Aiken.