About Ilana Zaks

Bio, Awards, Press

Biography

American violinist Ilana Zaks has been described as “fearless, refreshing and commanding” (Boston Music Intelligencer) and “captivating and delightful” (Worcester Telegram). Known for her dynamic artistry and commitment to musical storytelling, she has performed as a soloist and orchestral member with major ensembles across the United States and Europe.

Ilana has appeared with the Pittsburgh Symphony and served as first violinist with both the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, a position she earned at the age of 22. She has performed with numerous other orchestras, including the Boston Civic Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New England Philharmonic, Cascade Symphony, Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Cape Cod Symphony, and many more.

She made her symphonic debut at age eleven with the Boston Civic Symphony under Max Hobart, and later returned as a featured soloist at Boston’s Jordan Hall and the Boston Hatch Shell. Notable stages include Symphony Hall and Sanders Theatre (Boston), Heinz Hall (Pittsburgh), Benaroya Hall (Seattle), Powell Hall (St. Louis), Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Concertgebouw, Rudolfinum, and the Granada and Valladolid Festivals.

A Boston native, Ilana began violin at age three and studied with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory (B.M. in Violin Performance, minor in Liberal Arts). She earned her M.M. from Yale School of Music, studying with Ani Kavafian, and is an alumna of the Perlman Music Program, where she studied with Itzhak Perlman for seven years. Other influential mentors include David Kim and Jorja Fleezanis.

Her many accolades include the Yale University Broadus Earle Prize for Outstanding Violinists (2022), Yale Women Faculty Forum Seed Grant (2022), Ravel Competition, Fontainebleau (2022), BMOP Concerto Competition Winner (2020), and Concert for One (Celebrity Series of Boston, 2019). She has been featured on NPR’s From the Top (2014), KING FM (2023), and has received multiple awards for her electroacoustic performance project, Sound Worlds (2023–2025).

Ilana has held faculty positions at the Seattle Conservatory of Music, Yale University, Harvard University, and the New England Conservatory, and currently serves on the violin faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Professional Interests

Teaching

A passionate teacher, she is a 2025 faculty member of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra, adjunct faculty at Rollins Community School of Music, and national guest lecturer at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). In addition to teaching a private studio of talented violinists of all ages, she has also taught masterclasses, coached chamber music, and led sectionals across the country, including at Harvard University, Yale School of Music and Yale College, New England Conservatory, Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras, Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras, Seattle Conservatory, Pacific Lutheran University, Key to Change (Renton) and Project STEP.

Curating Musical Experiences

Zaks enjoys curating musical experiences that feature multidisciplinary collaborations, the inclusion of works by underrepresented composers, and works she commissions from living composers. In Spring 2018, she commissioned four composers to write pieces for Violin and Percussion which resulted in the first ever classical music Visual Album, The Persistence of Memory (2020), available on Amazon Prime. At Yale, she was the first violinist to perform in recital with video games and wearable technology (Video Game Vespers, 2022). Her past collaborators have included Olympic gymnasts and dance companies.

Multidisciplinary Collaborations

In addition to playing chamber music and collaborating with individual artists of all disciplines, Ilana enjoys and seeks collaborations with cultural centers, dance companies (ballet, tap, hip hop, modern, dance theater, tango, swing, ballroom, contemporary); comedy groups (sketch, stand up, improvisation); theater companies (experimental, Shakespearean, jazz ensembles, fashion designers; visual artists (photographers, painters, collage, mixed media artists, digital, projection designers, lighting designers); athletes (artistic and rhythmic gymnasts, ice dancers); chefs and vineyards, educational farms; writers (spoken word, poets, novelists, memoirists, journalists, academics); medical professionals (research, public health outreach projects), software engineers, designers and architects (AR, AI, VR, video game design) and more.

In the Press

Awards & Recognition