Anna Kruger is associate principal viola of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and principal viola of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Professor of viola at California State University, Sacramento, she also heads the Strings Chamber Music.

As founding violist of the Lark Quartet from 1985 through 1998, Anna has toured extensively throughout the United States and around the world. Notably, the Lark won 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, Paolo Borciani, Karl Klingler, and Banff International String Quartet Competitions. In 1998, the Quartet’s commission and premiere of String Quartet #2 by Aaron Jay Kernis won the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Highlights of Ms. Kruger’s seasons with the Lark included performances at the Lockenhaus Festival in Austria at the invitation of Gidon Kremer, the Beethoven Festival at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Musicades Festival in France, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany, and the Festival de Musica de Camera in Mexico.

A native of Columbus, Georgia, 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.