FACULTY 2026

Violin
Yuriy Bekker, Charleston Symphony
David Chernyavsky, San Francisco Symphony, Shkolnikova Academy Co-Music Director and Founder
Liana Gourdjia, Centro Superior Musikene, Spain and Ecole Normale, Paris
Gulia Gurevich, Prima Trio
Masha Lankovsky, Versailles Conservatory, Shkolnikova Academy Co-Music Director and Founder
Eliot Lawson, Amsterdam Conservatory, University of Minho, Conservatory of Mons Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Internationally acclaimed soloist, conductor and arranger

Oksana Solovieva, Orchestra Sinfónica del Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona
Lev Adamov, chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral leader Daniel Kurganov, teacher, chamber musician, soloist Simon James, San Francisco Conservatory Chen Zhao, San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Conservatory

Viola
Alexander Gurevich, New West Symphony Federico Hood, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo Tatjana Masurenko, Colburn School Ivetta Natzkaya, Orquestra do Algarve

Cello
Israel Fausto, “Manuel Castillo” Superior Conservatory of Music in Seville
Vicky Wang, San Francisco Conservatory

Amir Eldan, University of Michigan

Sebastien Hurtaud, Ecole Normale, Paris

Double Bass

John Dahltsrand, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire

Collaborative Piano
Jessica Osborne, Longy School of Music, Heifetz Institute
Irina Behrendt, Gradus ad Parnassum Music Academy

Special Guest Faculty, jazz and alternative styles
Tcha Limberger

Yuriy Bekker, critically acclaimed violinist and conductor, has been a mainstay of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in Charleston, SC for 15 years. He is incoming CSO Artistic Director for the 2022-23 season, has led as Concertmaster since 2007 and was named Principal Pops Conductor in 2016. Bekker is an adjunct faculty member of the College of Charleston School of the Arts as a violin professor and as conductor of the College of Charleston Orchestra. He has been Music Director of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival’s Spotlight Chamber Music Series and is co-founder of the Charleston Chamber Music Intensive. Bekker earned a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Herbert Greenberg. He also holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied violin with Nelli Shkolnikova and Ilya Kaler. Bekker has studied conducting with Christopher Wilkins, David Zinman, Imre Pallo and David Effron. His debut CD, Twentieth Century Duos, received worldwide acclaim and a nomination for the International Classical Music Awards.

David Chernyavsky joined the San Francisco Symphony in 2009. Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, he began violin studies at the age of six and at eleven gave his first solo recital. After winning prizes in competitions in Russia and France, he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. In 1997, Mr. Chernyavsky came to the US to study at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music with the famous Profesor Nelli Shkolnikova and, later, at the Juilliard School. He has recorded several CDs with the Saint Petersburg Quartet and with the Joel Rubin Klezmer Music Ensemble, and he has released a solo CD, Klezmer Violin. He also performs and teaches with the San Francisco Academy Orchestra.

Israel Fausto was born in Cuenca, Spain. He began his cello studies with Francisco González and proceeded later to Madrid to study under the tutelage of María de Macedo. Through a scholarship grant from La Caixa Foundation, he completed a Performer Diploma and Masters Degree in cello in Bloomington, Indiana University, under Professor Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi. Awarded several prizes in national and international competitions, Israel Fausto is since 2003 Cello Professor in the “Manuel Castillo” Superior Conservatory of Music in Seville. Beside a continuous pursuance of a concert career as soloist and performing chamber music he records regularly in labels such as Naxos, Perosi Musici and Thelxinoe. His recording of the complete Bach Suites in 2011 was awarded several prizes and acclaimed internationally.Israel Fausto collaborates regularly with specialized musical publications, with many articles related to the cello or pedagogical issues of this instrument. He is PHD in Philosophy.

Liana Gourdjia started playing the violin at the age of four under the guidance of her grandmother, and professor Tourchaninova. Liana began her official studies at the famous Central Music School at the Moscow State Conservatory with renowned professors Iryna Bochkova and Maya Glezarova. Upon graduating, she moved to the U.S. to continue her studies with David and Linda Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Liana received an Artist Diploma from the Jacob’s School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, studying with Jaime Laredo. At The Indiana University she was the first recipient of the prestigious Jacob’s scholarship, and was subsequently awarded the Performance Certificate in recognition for outstanding performances at her degree recitals. Liana benefited from master classes with Menahem Pressler, Janos Starker, Gil Shaham, Alex Kerr, Pamela Frank, Arnold Steinhardt, Gabor Takacs and the Orion String Quartet. Having won many international competitions and fellowships, she now teaches on faculty at the prestigious Ecole Normale Alfred Cortot Conservatory in Paris, and at Musikene in San Sebastián, Spain, combining it with solo and chamber music performances.

Gulia Gurevich is a violinist and a violist of the Prima Trio, a mixed ensemble which won Grand Prix at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. An avid orchestra musician, Gulia Gurevich has performed with the Boston, Indianapolis, Charleston, San Diego symphonies, among others. Gulia was invited to be on the chamber music jury panel of the International Young Pianist Competition in Villahermosa, Mexico and she also taught masterclasses at the Oberlin Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory and the PLU. After graduating with honors from the Interlochen Academy she enrolled at Indiana University, where she studied with Nelli Shkolnikova. She also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory, and won many prizes, awards and scholarships in the USA, as well as abroad.

Born into a family of musicians in Bogotá, Colombia, Federico Hood won his first professional orchestra audition at 15 and joined the Valle del Cauca Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, Federico left his native country to pursue his violin studies in the United States, first at the Texas Christian University with Curt Thompson and then at the Indiana University, Bloomington in the class of Nelli Shkolnikova. Federico moved to Valladolid, Spain in 2003 as a member of the Castilla and León Symphony Orchestra, initially in the first violins and later as a violist. An enthusiast of pedagogy, he has also been professor of viola at the conservatories of Valladolid and Menton (France). In the summer of 2007 Federico won a position in the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra where he is currently principal violist, as well as the violist in the renowned Trio Goldberg, who recently were awarded a gold medal with high distinction in the 2019 Vienna International Music Competition.

Born in Moscow, Masha Lankovsky began her musical studies in Australia and New Zealand where she spent her childhood. Following studies at the Royal Academy of Music, Masha was awarded her Bachelors and Masters degrees from Indiana University, Bloomington and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Masha has appeared in numerous international festivals including Schleswig Holstein, Fontainebleau, Britten Pears and Banff. Her recording “Russian Dreams,” with pianist Byron Schenkman was released on the Centaur label and features rarely heard compositions by Taneyev, Roslavets, Medtner, Prokofiev, and Scriabin. Strongly committed to music education, Masha is a sought-after teacher. She is presently a violin professor at the Conservatoire de Versailles. Masha has written articles for The Strad magazine and her English translation and edition of the writings of the renowned pedagogue Yuri Yankelevich is published by Oxford University Press.

Born in Brussels, Eliot Lawson is of Belgian and Luso-American nationality. He studied the violin with L. Souroujon, J. Van Aken, H. Krebbers, I. Oistrakh, J.J. Kantorow, P. Vernikov, N. Shkolnikova and I. Grubert. The titular holder of a Master’s degree in Music, awarded “with greatest distinction” by the conservatories of Brussels and Rotterdam, he also obtained the “Artist Diploma” of Indiana University in Bloomington and a “Perfezionamente” diploma from the Fiesole Music School in Italy. He obtained his PHD degree with distinction in music performance and musicology at the Evora University in October 2020. A laureate and finalist of several national and international competitions (including Brahms, de Beriot, Premio Jovens Musicos, Mozart, Proce Vitate, Vieuxtemps, Maasmond, Lantier, Krebbers, Premio Vittorio Gui semi-finals, Tibor Varga semi-finals, Cardona competitions), Eliot has given many concerts in Europe and the United States, appearing on numerous important stages and invited by the radio and television in Portugal, Holland and in Belgium. He is professor of violin at the conservatory of Amsterdam, the University of Minho and the conservatory of Mons. He recorded many albums for labels such as Cypres, Phaedra, Zed classics, Azur Classics, Brilliant Classics, toccata classics and Fuga Libera receiving excellent reviews in magazines such as the Strad, Diapason (5/5), Crescendo (Joker) and the golden label. Eliot is often invited as jury member for international violin competitions in Portugal, Italy, Hong Kong and Belgium. Together with his sister Pianist Jill Lawson , Eliot forms the Lawson & Lawson duo and is member of the Lopes Graça quartet.

Since picking up his first instrument the guitar, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Tcha Limberger is one of a handful of world class musicians to have become accepted and respected in a style of music culturally not their own. His showcasing on the international stage of his Transylvanian Kalotaszeg Trio and Budapest Gypsy Orchestra, and his nurturing approach to teaching almost forgotten traditional musics has made him one of the most prominent and ‘important figures in folk music of the Carpathian Basin’. Critics remarking on his achievements have claimed he is ’entirely made of music’, ‘The Polymath king of Gypsy music’, whilst musician colleagues refer to him as ‘the fifth element’. Tcha Limberger studied the music of Kalotaszeg with his mentor the legendary Neti Sandor, and the Magyar Nota style of Budapest with celebrated primas Horvat Bela. Both contribute to his recognition as both an exceptional and enthusiastic teacher who frequently holds masterclasses and leads interactive workshops encompassing both jazz and Central European folk music.

Tatjana Masurenko is one of the leading viola players of our time.

Tatjana Masurenko has made solo appearances with orchestras including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Radio Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and other leading orchestras in Europe and Asia. She has been a welcome guest at major international festivals as both soloist and chamber musician for many years.

She grew up in a family of Russian academics and jazz musicians. Her musical path began in St Petersburg where she was able to benefit from the traditional St Petersburg school with the best teachers of her time. She continued her musical studies in Germany with Kim Kashkashian and Nobuko Imai. Her search for new forms of expression on the viola and new techniques and tonal concepts were encouraged and influenced by encounters with figures including Boris Pergamenschikow, György Kurtág, Brigitte Fassbaender and Herbert Blomstedt.

At present, Tatjana Masurenko is intensively dedicated to historical performance practice and especially to 19th century playing and the romantic repertoire. For several years she has been engaged in playing the viola d’amore: thus, she interprets baroque and classical repertoire with passion, but at the same time she develops modern music on this baroque instrument with much interest in an experimental and innovative way with new sound ideas. She plays a viola d’amore by Charles Jacquot, Paris 1849.

Tatjana Masurenko is dedicated to promoting young musicians. From 2002 to 2022 she was professor of viola at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig with an international reputation and she teaches since 2019 in the same position at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne in Sion, Switzerland. In June 2022 she was appointed by the famous Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, USA, as Professor of Viola and Chamber Music (Richard Colburn Chair for Viola and Chamber Music) and now teaches there as well. She gives master classes in Europe and America and is artistic director of the International Viola Camp in Iznik (Turkey) as well as of a master class in Leipzig.

Ukrainian-American pianist Marina Radiushina made her debut with the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under the baton of maestro Valery Gergiev in 2012 appearing at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and Theatre Des Champs-Elysee in Paris. Marina was named laureate of the following competitions and festivals: Vladimir
Krainev International Piano Competition in Kharkov, Virtuosi-2000 International Festival in Saint-Petersburg, the International Festival in Kaunas, Lithuania, Corpus Christi International Music Competition, Arthur Rubinstein International Competition in Bydgosch, Poland, Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, USA. Marina Radiushina was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and now divides her time between two cities she loves – New York and Miami. In Miami she performs and serves as the co-founder and artistic director of the Miami Chamber Music Society and the artistic director of the Mainly Mozart Festival.

A renaissance man and a magnetic creative force, Dmitry Sitkovetsky is recognised throughout the world as having made a considerable impact on every aspect of musical life. A prolific recording artist, with a career spanning more than four decades, he is celebrated globally as a violinist, conductor, creator, transcriber, and facilitator – and holds an undisputed and venerable position in musical society as a giant personality and educator. As violinist and/or guest conductor, the 2022-2023 season and beyond sees Sitkovetsky perform extensively throughout Europe and North America. He performs chamber music at the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival and conducts the Israel Jerusalem Camerata in Israel; plays at the Guadalajara Chamber Music Festival and conducts the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in Mexico; and is featured in concerts in Berlin, Germany; Mexico City, Mexico; Bucharest, Romania; Havana, Cuba; Istanbul, Turkey; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Sofia, Bulgaria. Sitkovetsky is also the President of the jury of the George Enescu International Violin Competition in Romania and a member of jury at the International Fritz Kreisler Violin Competition in Austria and the Concours Musical International de Montréal in Canada. In summer 2023, he performs in the Verbier Festival’s 30th anniversary season.

Hailed by the Washington Post as a pianist “with a refreshing mellowness and poetic touch” after her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, Jessica Xylina Osborne is one of the most intensely expressive and passionate artists of her generation. She is widely considered to be one of the most sought-after collaborative partners, and has worked closely with some of the world's finest musicians, including Timothy Eddy, Hilary Hahn, and Mark Kosower. She has performed throughout the continental U.S., Europe, and Asia, and has appeared in recitals at many of the world's most celebrated venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, and the Seoul Arts Center. Dr. Osborne is a laureate of international piano competitions worldwide, including the Bartók-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev Piano Competition, the International Russian Music Piano Competition, and the Houston Symphony’s Ima Hogg Competition. Dr. Osborne holds degrees in solo piano performance from Indiana University and Rice University, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in piano performance from Yale University. She currently resides in New York City, where she is Artist Faculty at Third Street Music Settlement.

Cellist Vicky Wang is on the faculty of San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Pre-College Division and an assistant professor of cello at University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music and serves as the cellist of its faculty piano trio-in-residence, Trio 180. She is the artistic director of C’est Bon Chamber Music Academy in Los Altos, a summer program dedicated to inspire the love of music in young musicians through chamber music. Prior to relocating to California, Dr. Wang served on the faculty of Mannes College of Music and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in New York City. Her recent performances and masterclasses include appearances in Chamber Music America Conference, Pacific Music Institute of Hawaii Youth Symphony, Korea’s Busan MARU Music Festival, pianoSonoma Music Festival, and MTAC convention. Dr. Wang’s principal teachers include Eleonore Schoenfeld, Zara Nelsova, Darrett Adkins, Joel Krosnick, and Marcy Rosen. She has participated in music festivals such as the New York String Seminar, Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Verbier Music Festival (Switzerland), Spoleto Music Festival (Italy), and Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara). Dr. Wang received her Bachelor and Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School and Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from City University of New York.

Yulia Ziskel is a member of the New York Philharmonic's First Violin section (Friends and Patrons Chair) and her activities include numerous international solo and chamber music appearances. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Yulia Ziskel began her musical training on the violin and piano at age 4. She made her solo debut at the age of 7 at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall and at age 12 as a soloist with St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra. She toured extensively during her teenage years, appearing in solo recitals throughout Russia, Germany, Finland, Poland and United States. In 1994, Ms. Ziskel's family emigrated to the United States, where she completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Indiana University and her Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School.Yulia Ziskel’s solo CD on the Sonoris label includes works by Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky, Ysaye, Brahms, and Paganini.

Violinist Daniel Kurganov, praised for his "extraordinary fervor, commitment, and technical prowess" (Classics Today), stands in the direct lineage of Jascha Heifetz through his mentor Rudolf Koelman, bridging 20th-century masters with modern scholarship and analytical precision.

Daniel has performed at Merkin Hall, BargeMusic, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and participated in the Violins of Hope project, performing on an instrument rescued from Auschwitz. He performs in the Aegis Trio and was recently loaned the 'ex-Kneisel' Stradivari from 1714.

Through his Boston Violin Intensive, international masterclasses, and 90,000-subscriber online community, he has emerged as a leading voice in contemporary pedagogy. Featured regularly in The Strad and voted "Best of The Strad 2021," his teaching integrates tradition, technology, and psychology. In 2025, he was a visiting violin instructor at Boston University of music.

His recordings include world premieres by Lera Auerbach and Richard Beaudoin (Orchid Classics, 2021) and the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas on historical instruments (Hänssler Classics, 2023), earning a 10/10 from Jed Distler.

Born in Minsk and raised in Chicago, he holds a Master's from the Zurich University of the Arts.

Amir Eldan performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and as a principal cellist. At the age of 22, he became the youngest member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, when he won the position of Associate Principal Cellist and was invited to perform with the MET Chamber Ensemble in Carnegie Hall. He later served as the Principal Cellist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, at the invitation of Maestro Zubin Mehta. As the winner of the Juilliard Competition, Eldan made his New York debut at Alice Tully Hall. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Israel and in Asia. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with members of the Cleveland, Guarneri, Juilliard and Tokyo String Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio, Richard Goode, Lynn Harrell and Steven Isserlis. His performances have been featured on television and radio in the U.S., Europe and in Israel. He has performed in music festivals including Bowdoin, Giverny, Heifetz, Jackson Hole, La Jolla, Litomysl and Pilsen (Czech Republic), Maui, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, Orford (Canada), Open Chamber Music, Prussia Cove (England), Upper Galilee (Israel), West Cork (Ireland) and Xi’an, (China). He also participated in the Marlboro music festival and toured with Musicians From Marlboro. Mr. Eldan holds a Doctor of Music degree and a Master of Music degree, both from Juilliard, where he also served as assistant to Joel Krosnick. In 2006, while pursuing his doctorate studies, Eldan was appointed Cello Professor at the Oberlin Conservatory where he also served as Chair of the String Department and received the Distinguished Professorship award. As the cellist of the Oberlin Trio, he performed throughout the U.S. and South Korea. Since 2019 he is a Cello Professor at the University of Michigan.

Irina Behrendt is a Russian born pianist, accompanist, and teacher living and freelancing in the Bay Area since 1998. Irina regularly appears as a soloist with the Russian Chamber Orchestra, as a chamber musician at the Noontime Concert Series, San Francisco chapter of NACUSA recitals, teaches piano privately, works as a pianist/organist at the Community United Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay, and serves on the board of the MTAC San Mateo branch.

She holds degrees in Solo performance, collaborative performance, and pedagogy from Kaliningrad Rachmaninov Music College, Petrozavodsk State Conservatory, New England Conservatory.

Irina is a founder and director of the Musical Odyssey, chamber music concert series for children and families in Half Moon Bay, CA.

Hailed by The New York Times as a pianist of “a fiery sensibility and warm touch,” Anna Shelest is an international award-winning artist who has thrilled audiences throughout the world.

A champion of esoteric repertoire, Anna has, since 2017, been collaborating with the legendary conductor Neeme Järvi to record rare works for piano and orchestra. Their complete set of Anton Rubinstein’s piano concerti has been released to great acclaim, praised by the American Record Guide as “Easily the top choices now for these two concertos [#1 & #2]” and Gramophone for “power and agility, effortless effect, nuanced and incisive all round.” [#4 and Caprice Russe]. This collaboration continued in the fall of 2024, when she returned to Tallinn for the performance and recording of two great Eastern European works - Artur Lemba’s Piano Concerto #2 and Sergei Bortkiewicz’s Concerto #1.

The 2019 release of “Donna Voce,” a survey of music by women composers from the last three centuries, has become Anna’s ongoing musical project that includes live performances, lectures and videos, as well as sequel albums - “Donna Voce II” (2014), featuring Fanny Mendelssohn’s monumental piano cycle Das Jahr (“The Year”) and “Donna Voce III: Concerti” (2025) with Neeme Järvi conducting the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Cécile Chaminade’s Concertstück.

Anna regularly performs with her husband Dmitri as the Shelest Piano Duo, and have produced over 100 episodes for their YouTube channel “Shelest at the Piano.” Praised for their “stirring performances of rare repertory” (Fanfare), the duo traces its roots to music school in Kharkiv, Ukraine. At their 2018 Carnegie Hall debut, the duo’s CD release of “Ukrainian Rhapsody” brought renewed attention to the music of their homeland. Anna and Dmitri, who met as classmates in middle school, began performing together after their marriage in the United States. Their inventive programs brought them to a broad array of venues from concert stages to state functions, and in the words of Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, “realized diplomacy through music.”

Anna made her orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Kharkiv Symphony Orchestra and has, subsequently, appeared as soloist with many distinguished orchestras, among them the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. In recital and concerto performances, she has been heard in New York City’s Stern Auditorium and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Alice Tully Hall, Washington, DC’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes and Austria’s Wiener Konzerthaus.

A native of Ukraine, Anna received her early music education at the Kharkiv Special Music School. She received her Masters Degree from The Juilliard School in New York City, where she studied with Jerome Lowenthal.

Anna Shelest makes her home in New York City with her husband and two sons.

Lev Adamov, a Russian-American violinist, has been in demand in Europe and the United States as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral leader. His recent engagements include leading the Belgian National Orchestra as associate concertmaster, soloing with and leading the European Philharmonia, numerous concerts with the Antwerp Chamber Soloists (an ensemble he co-founded), as well as performances of adventurous cross-genre programming with KAOS ensemble (another chamber ensemble he co-founded which specialises in juxtaposing classical music with alternative genres as well as other media to create a fresh perspective in performance).

Lev believes in dialogue through music - one of the latest projects he has been involved in is an artistic peace project titled “The Dialogues” - performances and a documentary about his musical journey with Ukranian accordeonist and artist Alexii Soldatov.

As an internationally recognized pedagogue, Simon James has attracted worldwide attention as one of the foremost teachers of violin in the United States. In his long performing career, James has been a member of several prestigious orchestras, including the Seattle Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Orchestra. As concertmaster of the Northwest Sinfonia, he can be heard on hundreds of motion picture, TV, and video game soundtracks and has performed live with Pearl Jam, Elton John, Billy Joel, A R Rahman and many others. He has recorded concerti with the Seattle Symphony and the Slovak Radio Symphony with whom he premiered Richard Englefield’s Violin Concerto.

James students have won many of the world’s top prizes, including the International Menuhin Junior Competition, Stradivarius International Competition, Stulberg International String Competition, Vancouver International Music Competition, MTNA National Competition, and were laureates at the Spohr, Johansen, Il Piccolo Violino Magico, and Postacchini Competitions. They have been featured numerous times on NPR’s From the Top. In addition to appearing with all the Pacific Northwest’s leading orchestras, his students have performed with the Detroit, Richmond, Utah, and Seattle symphonies, the London Philharmonia, and on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series. They have participated at the Aspen Music Festival, Morningside Music Bridge, Meadowmount, Starling/Delay Violin Symposium, New York String Orchestra Seminar, and Kronberg Academy Festivals. Students from his studio have recently won positions in the New York Philharmonic, St Louis Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra.

A native of Shanghai, Chen Zhao showed an early interest in music, playing a makeshift violin (a chopstick and pencil box) until his parents gave him a 1/8-size violin on his fourth birthday. He studied with his uncle Ronghao Nie and gave his first public performance at the Shanghai Children’s Palace at age six. He went on to study at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Crossroads School for Art and Sciences, Curtis Institute of Music, and the SF Conservatory of Music. Chen’s teachers include Jiaxiang Zhou, Jiyang Zhao, Heiichiro Ohyama, Felix Galimir, Camilla Wicks, alongside members of renowned quartets from Amadeus, Guarneri, Vermeer, Juilliard, and Borodin. At age 25, Chen joined the San Francisco Symphony, marking a pivotal milestone in his career.

Chen’s extensive touring has taken him across the US, Europe and Asia, with performances at the Ravinia, La Jolla, Sun Valley, Round Top, Santa Fe, PMF, Evian, PCMF, BBC Proms and Lucerne festivals. A seasoned performer in the world's most prestigious concert halls, he has performed as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, SFS Youth Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Chamber Orchestra, Stanford Symphony Orchestra, Cal Poly Symphony, and Camellia Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, he has performed with Martin Lovett, Miriam Fried, Denise Djokic, Paul Neubauer, Robert Chen, Gilbert Kalish, Jorja Fleezanis, Geraldine Walther, Scott Lee, Sheryl Staples, Colin Jocobsen, as well as his SFS and SFCM colleagues.

Chen has mentored and coached hundreds of young violinists in the SF Bay Area and at music festivals. Most recently, his students have made solo debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, and Academy of St Martin in the Fields Orchestra alongside Joshua Bell. Many have gone on to successful careers as soloists, chamber musicians, and orchestral players, performing with major orchestras including SF Symphony, LA Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Milwaukee Symphony.

Beyond his role as a violinist with the SF Symphony, performing in over 160 concerts per season, Chen maintains an active career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He also shares his expertise as a violin professor at SFCM and serves as an orchestral excerpt coach for the SFCM Orchestra and SF Symphony Youth Orchestra. During the summer, Chen takes on artist-in-residence roles at the Round Top and Pacific Crest Music Festivals and performs with the Lake Area Music Festival Orchestra with Christian Reif.