Grammy Award-winning Japanese-Norwegian violist Masumi Per Rostad has been described as an “electrifying, poetic and sensitive musician” with an “understated yet commanding presence” by critics and is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. In 2017 he was appointed to the faculty of the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.  

As a former member of the Pacifica Quartet from 2001-2017, Masumi was full professor of viola and chamber music at Indiana University.

He received his BM and MM degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied with legendary violist and pedagogue Karen Tuttle and was appointed her teaching assistant. While a student, he performed the world premiere of Michael White's Viola Concerto in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and also gave the New York premiere of Paul Schoenfield's Viola Concerto.

Masumi has served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, The University of Chicago, and Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.

Currently, Masumi lives in Rochester, NY where he is associate professor of viola at the Eastman School of Music. His Amati viola was crafted in Cremona, Italy in 1619.