Lara St. John
Lara St. John (born April 15, 1971) is a Canadian violinist from London, Ontario. Her parents were teachers, and she and her older brother Scott were encouraged to study music. She started playing violin at age two, began lessons at three, and gave her first solo with an orchestra at age four. At five she started traveling to Cleveland to study, and at nine she won the grand prize at the Canadian Music Competition. When she was ten, she made her European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon and spent three years touring Europe.
She entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age 13, studying with Felix Galimir and Arnold Steinhardt. She later studied at the Guildhall School in London, the Mannes College of Music in New York, and the New England Conservatory. She has said that, at 14, she was sexually assaulted by a Curtis instructor, Jascha Brodsky; a 2019 investigation found her claims credible and the board accepted the findings.
In 1985 she placed 4th in the junior division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists. At 16 she moved to the former Soviet Union to study at the Moscow Conservatory, becoming the youngest post-graduate there. She also studied at several other schools and built an international performing career, playing with major orchestras in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
In 1999 she started her own record label, Ancalagon LLC, after becoming dissatisfied with how larger companies market music. Her recordings have done well on iTunes, including Bach: The Six Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo, which was a top-selling double album in 2007, and Bach: The Concerto Album, which rose to the top of the iTunes classical charts in 2005. She has also worked with groups like Bowfire and released Apolkalypse Now with Polkastra in 2009.
St. John often produces and edits her own videos, some of which appear on YouTube. Her work has been featured on NPR, CNN, Fox News, CBC, and Bravo. She won the 2011 Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompaniment and served as artistic curator for Wolf Trap Chamber Music at the Barns in 2018. She lives in New York City and is known for her love of reptiles; she has owned iguanas, including Ancalagon, Cain, and Octavius.
Her native languages are English and French, and she is fluent in Spanish and Russian.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:46 (CET).