Editing Viola (section)

== Notable violists==
{{Further|List of violists}}

There are few well-known viola virtuoso soloists, perhaps because little virtuoso viola music was written before the twentieth century. Pre-twentieth century viola players of note include Stamitz, Rolla, [[Antonio Rolla]], [[Chrétien Urhan]], [[Casimir Ney]], [[Louis van Waefelghem]], and Ritter. Important viola pioneers from the twentieth century were Tertis, [[William Primrose]], Hindemith, [[Théophile Laforge]], [[Cecil Aronowitz]], [[Maurice Vieux]], Borisovsky, [[Lillian Fuchs]], [[Dino Asciolla]], [[Frederick Riddle]], [[Walter Trampler]], [[Ernst Wallfisch]], Csaba Erdélyi, the only violist to ever win the [[Carl Flesch International Violin Competition]], and [[Emanuel Vardi]], the first violist to record the [[24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Paganini)|24 Caprices by Paganini]] on viola. Many noted violinists have publicly performed and recorded on the viola as well, among them [[Eugène Ysaÿe]], [[Yehudi Menuhin]], [[David Oistrakh]], [[Pinchas Zukerman]], [[Maxim Vengerov]], [[Julian Rachlin]], [[James Ehnes]], and [[Nigel Kennedy]].

Among the great composers, several preferred the viola to the violin when they were playing in ensembles, the most noted being [[Ludwig van Beethoven]], Bach<ref>{{cite book |last=Forkel |first=Johann Nikolaus|author-link=Johann Nikolaus Forkel|year=1802|title=Über Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke|title-link=Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work|editor=Claudia Maria Knispel|publisher=Henschel Verlag |location=Berlin |language=de}}</ref> and Mozart. Other composers also chose to play the viola in ensembles, including [[Joseph Haydn]], [[Franz Schubert]], Mendelssohn, Dvořák, and [[Benjamin Britten]]. Among those noted both as violists and as composers are [[Rebecca Clarke (composer)|Rebecca Clarke]] and Hindemith. Contemporary composers and violists [[Kenji Bunch]], [[Scott Slapin]], and [[Lev Zhurbin]] have written a number of works for viola.