Juliana Athayde

Juliana Athayde

Instrument: Violin

With the RPO since: 2005

Favorite time of year in Rochester: Fall because of the beautiful leaves and Spring because the flowers are the first burst of color after so many months of snow!

Hometown: Orinda, CA (near Berkeley, San Francisco)

Drink you're most likely to order at Java's: Latte

When not performing with the RPO, you can find me ... Exploring the surrounding neighborhoods, sitting at a coffee shop and doing the crossword puzzle.

First music-related memory: Hearing my mom's violin students playing the Barber Violin Concerto and the Prokofiev D Major Sonata.

I decided to be a professional musician when ... From the age of two, my violin and I were inseparable. Also, growing up in a musical house, I just thought that's what everyone did! Besides, what other kinds of jobs allow you to "play"? We don't "work" music - we play music.

Favorite travel destination: France - the language, the food, the scenery

Influential teachers: Dorothy Lee, Zoya Leybin, Paul Kantor, William Preucil

Favorite ice cream flavor: Coffee or Mocha

What are your other "hidden" talents: French horn and jazz piano

Do you teach private students? Whenever I have the time, I love to teach!

What other orchestras have you performed with? Plymouth Symphony Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra

Favorite composers: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Strauss, Bartok!

Do you have a pet? Hoping to get a dog soon!

The RPO is essential to Rochester because ... it brings different kinds of music to all parts of the community. Outreach is an essential building block for any orchestra and, more broadly, the future of classical music. I really enjoy playing for adults and children alike who might not be exposed to orchestral music if it weren't for the RPO.

My favorite part of working in the RPO is ... the amazing talent and demeanor of my colleagues. Everyone comes to work with a smile on their face, ready to give 110%.

Biography

Juliana Athayde was appointed concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2005 and made her RPO Philharmonics debut in April 2006. Prior to joining RPO, Ms. Athayde was concertmaster of the Canton and Plymouth Symphonies. In the winter of 2002, she served as concertmaster of the New York String Seminar under the direction of Jaime Laredo for concerts at Carnegie Hall. For the past five years, she was a member of Michael Stern’s Iris Chamber Orchestra in Memphis.

Ms. Athayde has performed as a soloist with the Asheville, Canton, Diablo, Flint, Mid-Texas, Palo Alto, Plymouth and Wyoming Symphony Orchestras. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she made her solo debut at the age of 16 performing with the San Francisco Symphony. She led the world-renowned San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in performances at Paris’ Cite de la Musique, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

Ms. Athayde earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan, where she was a student of Paul Kantor. She went on to earn a Master of Music degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In the spring of 2005, Ms. Athayde became the first and only student to graduate from The Concertmaster Academy, a brand new program at CIM. Under the direction of Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster William Preucil, the program is designed to prepare the most qualified students for a career as concertmaster of a major symphony orchestra. For the past six summers, Ms. Athayde was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and received the prestigious Dorothy DeLay fellowship in 2004. Ms. Athayde performs on a 1948 Celeste Farotte violin.