Biography

An exciting young performer, violist Nolan Prochnau regularly performs in and around West Chester, PA, their hometown. A graduate of West Chester University, in 2021, they were honored to receive the Undergraduate String Quartet scholarship at the school, an ensemble with whom they performed a full concert each semester.

Chamber music is at the core of Prochnau’s education. As a member of the Undergraduate String Quartet at West Chester University, they have performed numerous works across the repertoire, including the music of Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Villa-Lobos. Seeing the impact of chamber music in their own education, Prochnau founded the Brandywine String Quartet in 2022 with other educators. As an ensemble, the quartet has performed for retirement homes, schools, and music camps, performing both accessible music and standards of the repertoire at a high level. In addition to performance, the quartet educates young musicians at festivals, helping to promote chamber music in the younger generations.

An excellent orchestral player, Prochnau has performed new and standard works with a variety of ensembles. They have played with Berks Sinfonietta and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia, and have been the principal violist of the West Chester University Orchestras. In the summers of 2022 and 2023, Prochnau attended the Fresno Orchestra Summer Academy, where they performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11. The 2022 performance of the Mahler symphony was recorded and released in the fall of 2024.

A longtime church musician, Prochnau also plays the organ and has worked and volunteered their talents for churches of a variety of denominations. Most recently, they served as the principal organist for Holy Family Parish in Philadelphia.

Prochnau studied at West Chester University with Prof. Adriana Linares, and received regular chamber music coachings from members of the Dalí Quartet. They are excited to start their master’s degree at Temple University this fall and further build their growing career.