Patinka Kopec

About Patinka

Violinist/violist Patinka Kopec has been the Co-Director and Co-Teacher of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music since 1993, and the Co- Director of the Young Artists Programme summer festival at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada, with Mr. Zukerman since 1999.

Ms. Kopec has been on the faculty of the Heifetz International Music Institute since 2008, and has presented master classes all over the world – in person and via video conferencing. Her students are soloists, members of important quartets, major orchestras and chamber music groups, and teachers at major conservatories. Her former students may be found in the ranks of the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, London Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Rice University Shepherd School of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music.

Born in Slovakia, Ms Kopec moved to Israel, where she remained until the age of 11. After emigrating to New York, she entered The Juilliard Pre-College program, where she studied violin with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay, and received her BS and MS degrees. She was also Assistant to Ms DeLay at The Juilliard School and at the Aspen Music Festival and School. She also engaged in professional studies in viola at The Juilliard School with Lillian Fuchs and William Linzer. Ms. Kopec has been a member of the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) since 1987.

Ms. Kopec has adjudicated several international competitions, and was a founding artist of the Perlman Music Program, where she taught for 10 years. She has also participated in many other summer festivals, including Aspen, Keshet Eilon (Israel), Feher (Israel) Prague, Pilsen, Germany, Miyazaki, Slovakia, as well as in London, Spain, Brazil, and the Perlman Music Program in Shanghai. In recent years she has participated in festivals all over the world that have been started by her former students, In 2011 MSM established the Patinka Kopec Endowment in her honor, and in 2016 Ms. Kopec received the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service.