Violist Andrew Picken is associate principal violist of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, and Principal Violist of the Pasadena Symphony as well as the Glendale Symphony. A native of Los Angeles, Mr. Picken received a Bachelors degree from the University of California in Los Angeles and a master’s degree from Northwestern University in Chicago.

Mr. Picken has served as principal violist with the Long Beach Symphony, American Ballet Theater, the San Francisco Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet as well as in over 60 performances with L A Opera. He has performed with numerous other orchestras in southern California including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and Orange County’s Pacific Symphony.

Mr. Picken is associate principal violist of the Los Angeles Master Choral Orchestra, with which he has appeared as a soloist in Bach’s St. John’s Passion (on the Viola d’Amore) and Britten’s Cantata Misericordium. Since 2006, he has served as principal violist of the eastern Sierra Summer Festival in Mammoth Lakes, California. He is a faculty member at the Colburn School in Los Angeles and at Loyola Marymount University. He is a faculty member and frequent performer at the Chamber Music Unbound series in Mammoth Lakes, California as well as at the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival in Los Angeles.