Cara Pogossian

Armenian-American violist Cara Pogossian is an avid chamber musician having performed at numerous summer festivals, including the Marlboro Festival, Yellow Barn, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Tippet Rise, and Taos School of Music. In 2022, Cara was the winner of the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award and, more recently, her quartet was selected as a 2022-2023 Honors Ensemble at the New England Conservatory. She has had the privilege of collaborating and performing with many of the leading figures in classical music, such as Mitsuko Uchida, Don Weilerstein, Ida Kavafian, Joseph Lin, Marcy Rosen, Peter Wiley, Kim Kashkashian, and the Borromeo String Quartet. Cara is the principal violist of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as a guest musician with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She performed several high-profile concerts as an AGBU (Armenian General Benevolent Union) Scholarship recipient, and is a 2024 recipient of the St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award. Last year, Cara was named the winner of the NEC Concerto Competition, culminating in a performance of Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the NEC Philharmonia. She has toured with the Curtis Institute on multiple occasions, and will take part in her second Musicians from Marlboro tour later this season. Cara completed her graduate studies with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory of Music, as the recipient of the Abraham Skernick Memorial Presidential Scholarship. She had previously studied with Hsin-Yun Huang and Misha Amory at the Curtis Institute of Music.