Biography

Growing up in an international environment, Erika found that music allowed her to cross borders as a citizen of the world.  Through music Erika has had the chance to perform and meet classical music lovers in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan and the U.S. in venues including the Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Kioi Hall, Miller Theater at Columbia University, Minato Mirai Hall, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Steinway Hall, and Tokyo Opera City Hall.  She has given solo recitals at The Juilliard School, the Salon de Virtuosi concert series, and the WMP Concert Hall Strad for Lunch series and has performed with the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra and the Greenwich Village Orchestra.

Following the tragedy of the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Erika gave memorial concerts at Japan Society and the Japanese Ambassador’s residence in New York.  At the Japan Society, Erika performed on an instrument constructed from wood that was gathered and restored from the debris of the tsunami.  The violin carries the voices and memories of the victims symbolically through the wood of the instrument, which had previously been a part of house beams, and thus, the daily life of the victims of this tragedy.  Erika was awarded the Monique Shoen-Warshaw Career Grant from the Salon de Virtuosi for her performance at the Japanese Ambassador’s residence.

Erika has been honored with the The Juilliard School’s Achievement Award.  She won top prizes in the Juilliard Concerto Competitions and the Greenwich Village Orchestra Competition, and is a 2011 National Foundation for the Advancement of the Art’s Young Arts Winner in Music and Presidential Scholar in the Arts nominee. 

Since the age of sixteen, Erika has had the privilege to work with one of her greatest inspirations in music, Seiji Ozawa, who invited her to work with him at the Seiji Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy in Okushiga, Japan. Ozawa’s guidance in orchestral playing and making chamber music led her to discover the joy of making musical collaboration and connection with musicians with whom music was the common language.  As a member of the Ozawa Academy, Erika has performed orchestral repertoire in the Seiji Ozawa Academy Orchestra, where she has performed as concertmaster under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, and string quartet.  At the Saito Kinen Festival (now Seiji Ozawa Festival) in Matsumoto, Japan, Erika performed in the Seiji Ozawa Ongaku Juku Orchestra under the direction of Robert Mann.  Erika has also performed in The Juilliard School’s 2009 Focus! Festival and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Meet the Music series.  A former member of the Juilliard Orchestra and Verbier Festival Orchestra, Erika has worked with conductors including Charles Dutoit, Iván Fischer, Alan Gilbert, Paavo Järvi, Fabio Luisi, Peter Oundjian, Seiji Ozawa, David Robertson, Esa Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Maxim Vengerov.

Erika was born in New York City and combined her interest in music and academics from a young age.  Erika began playing the violin at the age of three.  At the age of ten Erika was admitted to the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School, while simultaneously pursuing a rigorous program of academic studies at the Dalton School.  Subsequently she was admitted to the Columbia-Juilliard joint program, which requires simultaneous admission to both Juilliard and Columbia and allowed her to continue her exploration of music and her interest in learning about foreign cultures.  At Columbia, Erika was on the Dean’s List from 2011-2014 and was awarded the Oscar Lee Award in support of her thesis writing.  Erika graduated cum laude from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies in 2015 and received a Master of Music in violin performance at The Juilliard School as a recipient of the Lester R. and Doris S. Benjamin Scholarship, Vicki Cowen Scholarship, Philip and Barbara Kaplan Scholarship, Joseph Kinney McAndrew Scholarship, and The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund.  Currently a student in the Columbia University Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program, Erika will begin her studies as a medical student in the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in fall 2019.  Erika’s teachers include Ronald Copes, Glenn Dicterow, Lewis Kaplan, and Ann Setzer. Erika has performed in master classes taught by Zakhar Bron, Igor Ozim, Christian Tetzlaff, and Maxim Vengerov.   

                        03/17/19