Anna Kruger, a native of Columbus, GA, is Associate Principal violist of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Professor of Viola at California State University, Sacramento.

As founding violist of the Lark Quartet from 1985 through 1998, she toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, to Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, and Russia. Among many competition prizes awarded the Lark were the Gold Medal in the 1991 Shostakovitch International String Quartet Competition and the 1990 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. The quartet also received top prizes in the London, Melbourne (Australia), Paolo Borciani (Italy), Karl Klingler (Germany) and Banff (Canada) International String Quartet Competitions. In 1998, the Quartet's commission and premiere of a work by Aaron Jay Kernis won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Highlights of Ms. Kruger's seasons with the Lark include performances at the Lockenhaus Festival in Austria at the invitation of Gidon Kremer, the Beethoven Festival at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, (under the direction of Sviatoslav Richter), Lyon's Musicades Festival in France, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Northern Germany, and Mexico's Festival de Musica de Camera. Major centers where she has performed include NY's Lincoln Center, the National Gallery and Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, St. Paul's Ordway Theater, San Francisco's Herbst Theater, and in the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston, Honolulu, Chicago, Atlanta, and Indianapolis. She has concertized abroad in the major cities of London, Paris, Basel, Stockholm, Munich, Hamburg, Vienna, St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Ms. Kruger has recorded a series of CD's with the Lark Quartet for Arabesque Recordings, including works by Borodin, Elgar, Handel, Schickele, Schnittke, Schoenberg, Schumann, Spohr, and Zemlinsky. She has also recorded works for Decca , New World, CRI, and Point record labels.

Teaching residencies with the Lark Quartet include positions as Quartet-in-residence at Ohio University, Dartmouth College, Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University, and San Diego State University.

Previous to the Lark Quartet, Anna played for two years as principal violist of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and performed with the symphony's string quartet.

Ms. Kruger received her Bachelor's Degree with High Distinction from Indiana University and her Master's Degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Her major teachers have included Abraham Skernick, Karen Tuttle, James Buswell, Burton Kaplan, and George Neikrug.

What is your hometown?

Columbus, GA

How long have you performed with New Century?

Since 2007

What do you love about New Century?

I love playing with my wonderful colleagues and it’s CHAMBER MUSIC!!

What is your favorite New Century memory?

Being on tour in Germany and playing to audiences numbering in the thousands.

How did you start learning your instrument, or who inspired you to begin?

I grew up in a musical family- my mother was a flutist and my father a conductor.  My older sister started on the violin, so of course I had to do what SHE was doing!  After my younger brother took up the cello, it was decided that I would switch to the viola.  After all, I WAS the middle child!!

What do you like to do when you're not being a musician? What are your hobbies?

Between taking care of my family and myself, there’s not much time for hobbies!  I do like to stay active, whether that’s hiking, walking, or just exercising.

What's your favorite Bay Area place (restaurant, park, etc.)?

I really like taking the Harbor Bay Ferry from Oakland to SF.