Travis Maril

Travis Maril is String Coordinator, Viola Faculty and Undergraduate Advisor at San Diego State University's School of Music and Dance, where he also co-founded and coordinates the SDSU String Academy, a pre-college program for young string students.

As a chamber musician, Travis was a top-prize winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and the 2021 winner Nathan Cole’s Violympics, an online competition for violinists and violists judged by James Ehnnes, Augustin Hadelich, Gil Shaham and others. Travis has performed with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Miro Quartet, and principal players of the Cleveland Orchestra, LA Phil, Dallas, San Diego and Pittsburgh Symphonies. Festival appearances include La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, Schleswig-Holstein, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and Mainly Mozart.

As a classical violist, Travis has recorded contemporary works for Naxos and New World Records, and plays as violist with Camarada, a chamber ensemble based in San Diego. Outside the classical realm, he has performed and recorded with the jazz group the Danny Green Trio, the chamber folk band The Tree Ring and a variety of other independent artists. He is featured in a number of film and television scores written by Joel P. West, including Just Mercy, starring Brie Larson, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.

A passionate teacher, in 2021 Travis was awarded Outstanding SDSU Music Faculty Member. Curious about the theory of teaching, Travis explores string pedagogy topics on his blog, String Theory, which in its first year had over twenty-eight thousand visits. Since 2021 he has worked with students from all over the world through his online program, String Gym.

Travis was a Trustee Scholar and Outstanding Graduate at the University of Southern California, where he studied with Donal McInnes and Ralph Fielding, and earned his Masters Degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School, working with Karen Ritscher. Additional teachers include James Dunham, Jeff Irvine, Che-Yen Chen, Nathan Cole and Susan Dubois.