Born in Chicago in 1959, Paul Primus attended public schools in Waukegan, Illinois and Ashland, Ohio, before attending college at Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in music from UWM. Upon graduation in 1983, he moved to Colorado, where he joined the Colorado Springs Symphony for one year before winning an audition with the Denver Symphony. Mr. Primus became a member of the Denver Symphony in 1984, and was promoted to Principal Second Violinist in 1985, the position he still holds. He is a Teaching Artist at Denver School of the Arts, and has begun studying Baroque Performance Practice in the past 2 years. He is equally adept at both violin and viola.
Paul is a founding member of the Colorado Chamber Players, which he and his wife Barbara Hamilton began in 1993. He performs approximately 40 concerts a year with the CCP, and can be heard frequently on Colorado Public Radio broadcasts of the CCP. Mr. Primus has performed numerous unaccompanied violin recitals over the years, most memorably one of the complete Paganini Caprices in 1986. In 2010, Mr. Primus performed solo violin recitals at Rainer Auditorium in Denver and at the Golden Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Paul is an active teacher in the Denver area and has also taught and performed at many music festivals, including the Eastern Music Festival, Rocky Ridge, and the Lamont Pre-College Academy at DU. He is a frequent coach for the Denver Young Artists’ Orchestra. Mr. Primus’ teachers include Daniel Majeske (former concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra), David Cerone, Laurence Shapiro, Leonard Sorkin, and Harold Wippler. He is a proud parent of Josh and Lily Primus, and loves to read, travel, and do yoga.
