Coletta, Harold

Viola player.

Harold Coletta (1917-2001) was a prominent violist who was a respected teacher as well as performer and had a very fruitful career.

Coletta was born in 1917 and spoke only Italian until going into Kindergarten. When going in after school for extra music lessons, he was humming a tune and his teacher could sense musical talent. She gave him a half-size violin and arranged for him to have lessons by Luigi Borsi.

Coletta's viola career began when his project manager of the WPA Symphony told all of the violinists to stand up. He pointed to two of them randomly and told them to become violists. His first teacher was Josef Kovarik. After playing in the All-American Youth Orchestra on tour in South America, he auditioned for the Juilliard Graduate School and was accepted.

In 1945 Coletta auditioned for the NBC Symphony under Toscanini and was accepted. During the early days of television and radio, Coletta worked often with Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Bing Crosby.