Trevor McTait
Born in Hertfordshire, England, Trevor McTait studied violin at the junior department of the Royal Academy of Music, London (RAM), until the age of 18, when he devoted himself to the viola. After obtaining a Master’s Degree (MA) from Cambridge University, he went to study as a post-graduate at RAM, winning the A.C. Daniell Scholarship. With Professor Martin Outram of the Maggini String Quartet, he achieved DipRAM with distinction and won the Moir Carnegie Award for Excellence in a final recital. During this time, he also studied with violists such as Rivka Golani, Paul Silverthorne, Jerzy Kozmala, Atar Arad and John White; and chamber music with, among others, Sigmund Nissel (Amadeus Quartet), Sandor Devich (Bartók Quartet – Dartington International Summer School), Sir Colin Davis, and with the Maggini, Endellion, Skampa, Brodsky and Alberni Quartets. Between 1998 and 2000 he was co-principal viola of the European Union Youth Orchestra, conducted at the time by Vladimir Ashkenazy and Bernard Haitink.
In London, between 1999 and 2008, he worked assiduously as a guest musician with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, participating in the Proms concerts, and as a violist in the Archinto String Quartet. He has also played with the London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras, the Porto Symphony Orchestra Casa da Música, MusikFabrik (Cologne), Chroma (London contemporary chamber-music ensemble), the National Symphony Orchestra (London) and the New London Soloists (St. Martin-in-the-Fields). He has worked with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Jiri Belohlavik, Sir Colin Davies, Leonard Slatkin, among others, in world’s leading venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall New York, Symphony Hall Washington, Philharmonie Berlin, Esplanade Theatre Singapore, among others. He has participated in several phonographic editions as a performer, such as: Ius Lucis by Valerio Sannicandro (MusikFabrik, Colonia 2010); Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 and Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony (EUYO 1998/99); The Musical Landscape (RAM Soloists, 1999) and on numerous recordings with the Remix Ensemble (including the award-winning recording of James Dillon’s Philomela), the Casa da Música Baroque Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London (including the award-winning recording of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride).
He is currently principal viola of the Remix Ensemble and the Baroque Orchestra of Casa da Música and a chamber-music teacher at the Espinho Professional School of Music, where he also leads string groups accompanying guest musicians such as Mick Harvey, China Moses, Kevin Morby and Mark Eitzel. He has recently worked with, among others, MusikFabrik Cologne, Basel Sinfonietta and several orchestras and chamber music groups in Portugal. He was principal viola of the Orquestra Clássica do Centro and the Orquestra da Costa Atlântica. Other Portuguese musicians with whom he has performed and recorded include César Mourão, S. Pedro, Miguel Araújo, Diogo Piçarra and Mão Morta. In 2024 and 2025 he collaborated with Hugo Vasco Reis on the Sonic Figures project for solo viola and electronics, a project supported by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, with performances in Lisbon, Porto and Guarda, among others.
2025
