Composer Bernard Vallandingham felt a calling for music at a very early age and started learning how to play the violin after falling in love with its magical sound when he heard it first time in a concert hall at age four. At his third violin lesson he proudly brought his very first piece for solo violin to his teacher, and his passion for writing music has continued ever since, expanding to a variety of works that feature different instruments, chamber music works, and later, choral works and larger scale works for full orchestra.

At age 17, he continued his music education with a scholarship to Oberlin College and Manhattan School of Music where he studied violin and viola with Marilyn Macdonald and Isaac Malkin, and music theory, counterpoint, and composition with Warren Darcy, Allen Cadwallader, and Mark Stambaugh.

Mr. Vallandingham combined from the start two passions: performing and composing. Mr. Vallandingham’s unusual versatility as a violinist as well as violist has led to many performances in many concert halls throughout the US such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in Palm Beach, Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in Miami and Naples Center for the Arts in Naples and has worked with conductors Kurt Masur, Yuri Temirkanov, Zdenek Macal, Joseph Silverstein, Marco Armiliato among others.

Mr. Vallandingham has been a member of well-established orchestra groups such as the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Virtuosi, and the Manhattan Virtuosi – with whom Mr. Vallandingham performed as concertmaster.

As a composer, Mr. Vallandingham has been writing orchestral and chamber music works, some employing somewhat unusual configurations, such as his Dance Suite in three movements for Piano, Clarinet, Violin, and Viola.

His Terzetto for Two Violins and Viola was presented at Academy of Music Festival in New York, and his String Quartet No. 3 was premiered at Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington D.C. Other works have been featured at the National Music Festival in Chestertown, MD, and some of his most recent chamber works will be released this year on a new album with Kassia Music, a group co-founded by him in an effort to bring and present new contemporary tonal music to audiences.

Music education remains an important interest for Bernard’s compositions: last year, he finalized a commission for the renowned violinist and pedagogue Mr. Robert Lipsitt in California that was successfully presented at the Colburn School. The latest piece Bernard is working on is a musical story with narration, which will be premiered at the end of this year to audiences of all ages in Washington D.C. Stay tuned!