Violinist Clayton Tillotson is an active performer and teacher based in Madison, Wisconsin. With more than a decade of teaching experience, he enjoys helping students become efficient problem solvers, develop comfort and ease in playing, and communicate their musical ideas to audiences. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied with David Perry of the Pro Arte Quartet and was awarded a full scholarship position in UW’s graduate Hunt Quartet. He also earned an artist diploma from The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory in Toronto, where he studied with renowned violin pedagogue Paul Kantor.
Clayton has spent many summers at music festivals across the United States and has been a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival, an artist/faculty member at the Caroga Lake Music Festival, and chamber music prizewinner at the Meadowmount School of Music. In addition to teaching privately, he also coaches chamber music for the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras and Farley’s House of Pianos. He regularly performs with ensembles such as the Madison Symphony and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and has performed live on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “The Midday.” He currently plays a Parisian violin from 1855 by Charles Adolphe Gand and a bow by Joseph Arthur Vigneron circa 1895.