Ilana Zaks

Violinist Ilana Zaks has been praised as “fearless, refreshing, and
commanding” (*Boston Music Intelligencer*) and “captivating and delightful” (*Worcester
Telegram*). A versatile soloist, educator, and interdisciplinary collaborator, she has performed
with the Pittsburgh Symphony under John Williams and Manfred Honeck, and in concert with
Anne-Sophie Mutter. She has soloed with over a dozen orchestras, including the Boston Civic
Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Cascade Symphony, and performed at Carnegie
Hall, The Concertgebouw, and Berliner Philharmonie.

Most recently, a first violinist with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, Zaks was also on the chamber music faculty at the
Seattle Conservatory and joins the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in Summer 2025.
She coaches the Seattle Youth Symphony and Florida Youth Orchestras.

Zaks curates and performs *Sound Worlds* (2020–2025), a multimedia concert for violin and
electronics exploring identity, illness, memory, and resilience. Supported by major national and
international grants and started at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, where she
was a Fellow, the project features immersive works by four innovative composers and includes
visuals and post-concert dialogue. Her Amazon Prime visual album (and recording debut), The Persistence of Memory
(2020) further reflects her passion for interdisciplinary creation as the first classical music Visual
An album of its time.