At just eighteen, Chicago violinist Masha Lakisova is fast becoming one of the rising stars of her generation. She has had the privilege of performing in esteemed concert venues in the United States and all over the world. Masha has appeared as a soloist with more than twenty orchestras worldwide such as Kremerata Baltica, HEMU, Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra, Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, and Lake Forest Symphony. At the North Shore Chamber Music Festival, she became the first recipient of the Arkady Fomin Scholarship. She was featured on NPR’s “From The Top,” where she received the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, and on WFMT’s Introductions, both as a soloist and as a member of various chamber groups.
She has taken top awards and won numerous prestigious competitions such as First Prize at the 2018 Tibor Junior International Violin Competition, Second Prize at the 2015 International Andrea Postacchini Violin Competition, was named a 2017 National Young Arts Winner, finalist at the 2013 International Louis Spohr Violin Competition as well as the winner of Walgreens National Concerto Competition, and the DePaul Concerto Festival.
From 2011-2017, Masha was a member of Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, where she served as concertmaster in three orchestras and played first violin in four chamber groups. Her chamber groups have appeared three times on NPR’s “From The Top” and won the Gold Medal at the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition in 2016 and 2017. They received 1st Prize in the 2015 and 2016 Rembrandt High School Chamber Music Competition, as well as 1st Prize at the WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition in 2017. They were also the overall winners at the 2016 Discover Chamber Music Competition and Silver Medalists at the 2016 St. Paul String Quartet Chamber Music Competition. In 2018, Quartet Bellezza was accepted to the Julliard String Quartet Seminar.
Masha currently studies at Julliard Pre-College with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin, and she had previously been a student of Grigory Kalinovsky, Drew Lecher and Larisa Zhizhin. Masha has taken lessons and masterclasses with such prominent virtuosi as Ana Chumachenko, Anne Sophie Mutter, Pinchas Zukerman, Miriam Fried, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Augustin Hadelich, and Ida Kavafian. She has collaborated with Vadim Gluzman, Pavel Vernikov, Svetlin Roussev, Ilya Kaler, Yossif Ivanov, Masumi Per Rostad, Rose Armbrust Griffin, Ani Aznavoorian, Mark Kosower, Christopher O’Riley, David Schrader, and the Ariel Quartet.
Masha has been accepted to many prestigious summer music festivals. In 2015, she attended the Heifetz Music Institute and has been a student at the Perlman Music Program since 2016.
