SONJA HARASIM, a native of Houston, Texas, is an alumna of the renowned Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and is a graduate student at Rice University's prestigious Shepherd School of Music. She is currently a student of Kenneth Goldsmith and has previously studied with David Updegraff, Kathleen Winkler, Albert Muenzer, and Paul Kantor. While in Cleveland, she served as concertmaster of the CIM Orchestra, won a top prize in the Cleveland Hillel Competition, and participated in the Intensive Quartet Seminar at CIM. She has studied chamber music extensively with Peter Salaff of the Grammy Award Winning Cleveland Quartet and the Cavani String Quartet, CIM's Quartet in Residence. She has also performed in master classes and received coachings from members of the Takács, Cleveland, Concord, and Juilliard String Quartets. Sonja has performed at several preeminent music festivals, including Tanglewood, Encore (where she served as David Updegraff's teaching assistant), Aspen, Round Top, Brevard, and Interlochen. While at Tanglewood, she served as concertmaster under Maestro Kurt Masur in a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. In her recent trip to the Netherlands, Sonja studied with Mihaela Martin and Krzysztof Wegrzyn at the Holland Music Sessions, and performed a solo recital to great acclaim in Alkmaar, North Holland. A recipient of the highly competitive Brown Scholarship at Rice, Sonja has served as concertmaster of the Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra, played extensively in chamber ensembles, and has established herself as both a violin teacher and chamber music coach. This year she has been appointed as Professor Goldsmith's teaching assistant and serves on the faculty of both violin and chamber music studies at the highly respected Shepherd School of Music Preparatory Program. She has performed outreach concerts at schools and churches throughout Houston, and was asked to give a master class at The High School for Performing and Visual Arts, the school from which she graduated with musical honors. In addition to teaching privately, Sonja frequently gives orchestral sectionals as a violin coach with the Houston Youth Symphony. She also regularly appears as a performer with the Maggini String Orchestra and Nova Arts Project.d.