Carol Rodland | Faculty Portrait

Viola and Chamber Music Faculties

Growing up in Ridgewood, New Jersey, in a home full of musicians, Carol Rodland (Pre-College ’86; BM ’91, MM ’96, viola) thinks she probably sang before she could talk, but her formal studies began with the violin at 4 and the piano at 6. In addition to her Juilliard degrees, she received a postgraduate degree at the Freiburg (Germany) Musikhochschule. She joined the Juilliard faculty in 2017 and has also been a full-time professor at Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, and Arizona State University.

When did you know you wanted to be a musician?
I had many academic interests growing up, and while music was always a serious part of my life (and my education), I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a professional musician until my late teens. Even in my 20s I thought I might end up doing something else!

Who was the teacher or mentor who most inspired you?
I was so fortunate to have wonderful teachers growing up, beginning with my first violin and piano teachers, Jean Soroka and Marcia Spitz. When I started at Pre-College, I had the loving support of Janée Munroe, and then in college and graduate school, Karen Tuttle, Kim Kashkashian, and Paul Doktor. Before and during all of this formal training, however, I had constant and loving support as well as substantive input from my parents, both of whom were excellent musicians and truly gifted teachers. They were an in-house and nonstop source of inspiration and guidance!

What’s the first recording you remember?
Peter and the Wolf with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic

What are three big changes since you studied at Juilliard?

1. The addition of the Historical Performance program (we had to sneak over to Albert Fuller’s house to explore Baroque performance practice back in the ’90s) and Jazz Studies, both of which are so fabulous;
2. all the high-tech stuff all over the school, and especially in the library (I used to work in the record library—it is still its comfy self, but it is so cool that we can access everything so easily and quickly now);
3. the Juilliard Journal is now printed in color!

What are three things that are pretty much exactly the same?

1. Margo Lamb is still answering the phones;
2. you still can’t open the windows;
3. many of my former teachers are still here, including Eric Ewazen, who taught my very first Juilliard class ever: 8:30am Pre-College Theory.

What are your nonmusic interests or hobbies?
Baseball (in spite of it all, I am a lifelong Mets fan!), Pilates, walking in nature, and reading. I am also passionate about supporting food banks and raising awareness and support for food insecurity on the local level. One way I do this is through “If Music Be the Food …,” a benefit concert series I created in Rochester in 2009 that has spread throughout the country. Dear Readers, please be in touch if you wish to help out with our New York City concerts!

What would people be surprised to know about you?

1. I solfèged the Bach Double and the Handel Halvorsen Passacaglia in a recital in Paul Hall with my friend Marissa Regni when we were in Pre-College;
2. I laugh a lot (OK, maybe people who know me a little know about that);
3. the real reason I made the final switch from violin to viola was because my schnauzer, Schnapps, would howl incessantly if I played above a C on the E-string.

What are three things you’d want your students to remember from your teaching?

1. Keep cultivating your joy, your curiosity, and your love for your art and for the work itself;
2. find a way to help others through your art;
3. to quote Karen Tuttle: “if it hurts it is wrong!” And I'll add, if it feels great and sounds great/convincing, it is right!

What are you reading/listening to/following/watching?
I read anything and everything, from the New York Times and the New Yorker to novels, biographies, short stories, and history of all kinds. Right now, I am wading through Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, and Kurt Anderson’s Fantasyland.

If you weren’t in the career you are in, what would you do?
I would probably be a writer, a professor of history or English, or a lawyer for a nonprofit.

Any meal, prepared by anyone, what would it be?
Anything my dear friend and duo partner Tatevik Mokatsian cooks—she is a fabulous pianist, but also an amazing Armenian cook!

What question do you always get asked?
Does everyone in your family have such curly hair?

What do you wish you’d get asked?
May I buy you a fine Italian antique viola of your choosing?