ATHENS - Canadian-born violinist Lara St. John has been described as "something of a phenomenon" by The Strad and a "high-powered soloist" by The New York Times.

The UGA Performing Arts Center will present St. John at 3 p.m. Sunday in Hodgson Concert Hall as part of the Franklin College Chamber Music Series. St. John has performed with orchestras around the world.

In 1999, she formed her own record label, Ancalagon Records, and has recorded with several orchestras including the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. Her 2007 release, "Bach: The Six Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo," was the best selling double album of the year on iTunes, and her recording featuring two world premiere concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has been lauded in Gramophone Magazine as "the sort of work that should get audiences running, not walking, back to concert halls ..."

St. John has been featured in People and U.S. News & World Report, on CNN's Showbiz Today, NPR's All Things Considered, BBC Radio 3's In Tune, and on the Bravo TV special Live at the Rehearsal Hall. Award-winning composer and pianist Martin Kennedy will accompany St. John for her Hodgson Hall recital.

Kennedy wrote one of the pieces St. John will perform. The Athens recital will be recorded for national radio broadcast on American Public Media's Performance Today. The concert is free and open to the public.