Concerts & Seminars

traditional & innovative Concert events
Black and white portrait Violinist Ilana Zaks holding a violin, wearing a dark sweater and a neutral expression.

Violinist Ilana Zaks

From intimate solo recitals to immersive multimedia experiences, Ilana Zaks offers a wide range of performances designed to connect with audiences of all kinds. Her programs span classical masterworks, contemporary chamber music, and thematic concerts that explore identity, history, and storytelling through sound. Whether you're planning a concert series, cultural event, or community gathering, performances can be tailored to fit your space, audience, and vision.

Book Ilana for a performance

Orchestra performing on stage with violinist Ilana Zaks at age 13, with a conductor and other musicians playing string instruments.

Soloist with Orchestra

Available to play a variety of classical & pops pieces. View repertoire.

Violinist Ilana Zaks in front of an audience of elderly people in a room with a TV and yellow walls.

Violin Performances

Traditional classical repertoire, thematic programs highlighting underrepresented composers, multimedia presentations & interactive concerts

A chamber music performance with Ilana Zaks on violin, on stage with piano and cello, in front of a large window.

Chamber Music

Open to collaboration in any grouping or style

Soloist with Orchestra

Orchestra performance with a female violinist in a gown, a conductor overseeing musicians, and sheet music, in black and white.

Ilana Zaks 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.

Ilana is available for orchestral engagements in the 2025-26 season. View Repertoire.

Critics say

  • “Violinist Ilana Zaks dispatched the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with surprisingly mature and outgoing mastery. She knew when to lead and when her part was accompaniment. With a large and unforced tone, she used vibrato as an expressive device rather than sugarcoating. Her harmonics were some of the best-tuned I have heard, her portato articulations brilliant, and she had a refreshing way of knowing when to borrow time and when to return it. She projected untreacly sweetness along with the command. She was ready for her spotlight in the cadenza. It probably would have earned spontaneous applause had the second movement not been played attacca.”

    — Lee Eiseman, Boston Music Intelligencer

  • “More than a few were astounded by the fearless performance of Ilana Zaks, who is only 14, but who was not in the least daunted by the Allegro vivacissimo finale of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. … This is the same concerto that its original dedicatee, the great Leopold Auer, declared to be unplayable, although he later gave in and played it.”

    — Mark DeVoto, Boston Music Intelligencer

  • “Ilana Zaks opened the evening with the "Carmen Fantasy," for which she wore a red dress. Ilana seemed to thrive on the energy she was getting from the orchestra, and her excellent performance was met with enthusiastic applause.”

Solo Violin Performances

Violinist Ilana Zaks playing solo at the historic St. Botolph Club

Violin Recitals

Traditional repertoire featuring works by violinist-composers like Bach, Ysaÿe, Bloch, and Paganini, often with spoken commentary to explore the music’s history and meaning

Violinist Ilana Zaks on stage, wearing a black dress, with people in the foreground and decorative paper apples on the wall behind her.

Thematic Programs

Thematic programs highlighting underrepresented composers, such as Jewish identity through music or American composers of diverse backgrounds

Violinist Ilana Zaks performing Video Game Vespers with performance art installation

Multimedia Projects

Multimedia presentations combining live violin performance with film, narrative, and visual art to create immersive experiences

Interactive Seminars & Accessible Concerts

Tailored for seniors, community centers, and cultural institutions, often including audience discussion.

Topics include:

  • Jewish Identity Through the Violin – Exploring Jewish composers’ voices through live performance and storytelling

  • The Violin Across Continents and Centuries – From Baroque to modern-day America, tracing Ilana’s musical lineage through Auer, Galamian, and Oistrakh

  • Women in Music History – Highlighting underrecognized women composers and trailblazers

  • Music and Memory – A reflective program combining live music with conversation and story-sharing, ideal for enrichment and memory care

  • The Intermedial Performer – Exploring how musicians use technology and multimedia to tell new stories

Audiences say

  • “It was the most extraordinary concert I had ever heard, and I only wish that those who chose not to come ‘because solo violin is not my favorite repertoire’ had taken a chance on a gift that landed literally where we live.”

  • “She played beautifully, and was generous with her music, poised, forgiving of interruptions by latecomers and appreciative of the riveted attention of the audience. All her selections were difficult, but she made them sing and her commentary was enlightening.”

A woman playing a violin in a dark setting, with focus on her upper body and instrument, wearing a black dress with gold floral patterns.
A young woman in a black dress playing a violin on stage during a performance in front of an audience, with children in the foreground and decorated with fruit-themed cutouts on the backdrop.
A large group of elderly people seated in a lounge watching a woman play the violin on stage.
A woman in a shimmering, sleeveless, floor-length dress playing the violin in a room with wooden floors, a grand piano covered with a black cloth, and large windows with blue and yellow curtains.
Young girl playing the violin on stage with a red curtain background.
A woman playing the violin in a music rehearsal room with wooden walls and large windows.

Chamber Music Concerts

Ranging from classical masterpieces to contemporary works in any kind of grouping

Performance Videos

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A young woman holding a violin and smiling on a street.