Gloria Justen

Gloria Justen is a violinist, violist, and composer who creates, performs and teaches in a wide range of styles from classical and acoustic to improvised and amplified electronic music. She has recorded and released two albums of original music for solo violin and solo viola, which can be heard at www.gloriajusten.bandcamp.com.
Gloria teaches both in-person and online. In addition to teaching classical violin and viola privately and at the Community Music Center in San Francisco, she has recently founded www.StringSoundPlayground.com, an online learning space and community where she is offering classes on improvisation and creativity for string players who want to “break out of the box.”
Gloria’s primary mentors were Fredell Lack in Houston, TX, and Szymon Goldberg at the Curtis Institute of Music, from which she graduated in 1990. She has performed and toured with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (serving as Concertmaster from 2005-2011) and the Philip Glass Ensemble, and she has played many works by other contemporary composers. She has also been a recording studio violinist for many pop music stars, such as Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Ne-Yo, and J-Lo. Other sound art activities include recording environmental sound and creating sound collages. She is based in San Francisco, California.