Joan DerHovsepian

Joan DerHovsepian serves as Principal Viola of the Houston Symphony. She first joined as tutti viola, hired by Christoph Eschenbach, moved to Associate Principal for thirteen seasons, and was then named Principal Viola with current Music Director Juraj Valčuha in 2023.

Recent festival and chamber music performances include the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Mimir Chamber Music Festival, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Grand Teton Music Festival, Peninsula Music Festival and Music in Context. In 2025 she began as violist of the Axelrod String Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., playing on the museum’s collection of Nicolò Amati and Stradivari instruments.

Joan has been appointed as Professor of Viola at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music for 2026-27. The viola orchestral repertoire course she has passionately taught for over 20 years at the Shepherd School has coached students to win positions in major orchestras across the US and around the world. She is regular guest faculty for the New World Symphony, National Orchestral Institute and Texas Music Festival. Joan was featured as Artist-in-Residence for the American Viola Society in 2023.

She was the violist of the award winning Everest Quartet, top prize winners at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Joan was the second prize recipient of the Primrose International Viola Competition. Her teachers have included James Dunham and Kim Kashkashian. She has studied chamber music with Michael Tree, Joseph Silverstein, Eugene Lehner, Felix Galimir and members of the Cleveland, Emerson and Juilliard Quartets.