Margaret Batjer is Director of Colburn’s Music Academy, a program dedicated to training exceptional pre-college classical musicians from around the world for careers in music. Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and a renowned violin soloist, chamber musician, and teacher, Batjer shapes the artistic vision for the Music Academy and will lead the development of the program through its second decade.
Margaret Batjer has served as concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) since 1998, where she also serves as Director of Chamber Music. She is also renowned as a violin soloist, chamber musician and teacher, and has established herself as a versatile and respected artist worldwide.
Batjer has appeared as soloist with America’s leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Batjer has also performed with leading European ensembles such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra (of Ireland), Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra. She has performed at many of the great halls across the continents such as La Scala, Carnegie Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Suntory Hall in Japan.
An esteemed chamber musician, Batjer was a longtime participant at the Marlboro Music Festival. Summers have found her performing at the La Jolla Summerfest, the Sarasota Music Festival, Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and abroad at the Naples, Cremona and the Salzburg Festival. In 2020, she formed the Los Angeles Piano Trio with colleagues Fabio Bidini and Andrew Shulman. Batjer has collaborated with such notables as Salvatore Accardo, Maurizio Pollini, Yo-Yo Ma, Jeffrey Kahane, Radu Lupu, Peter Serkin, Wu Han, David Finckel, Anne-Marie McDermott and Chris Thile.
Batjer has enjoyed an extensive recording career over the last several decades. Her most recent recording with LACO includes the live premiere of the Pierre Jalbert Violin Concerto, and works by Bach, Part and Vasks released on the BIS label. She recorded the Bach Concerto for Two Violins with Salvatore Accardo and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe for the Philips label, and a 2003 Deutsche Grammophon recording pairing Batjer and Hilary Hahn as soloists with Jeffrey Kahane conducting LACO. She has also made numerous chamber music recordings on the EMI, Nuova Era and BMG labels.
Batjer is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Ivan Galamian and David Cerone. She held the position of Adjunct Full Professor of Violin at the USC Thornton School of Music for 20 years and will be resigning in 2026.