The Musicverse of a Young Violinist

Clara Chi is a 17-year-old violinist at The Juilliard School in New York who has performed extensively in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. She has won 1st place in several international competitions in Europe and the United States, and she has enjoyed the honor to perform in a public concert as a 1st violinist in the New York Philharmonic alongside Kerry McDermott in Lincoln Center's refurbished David Geffen Hall. 

Clara also co-founded Artistica Dynamica, a highly active arts neuroscience non-profit which has two divisions, Research Dynamica and Musica Dynamica, which are dedicated to both the research and demonstration of how certain arts can improve, stabilize, or even heal the brain and the mind.

Clara grew up hearing the violin in folk music and classical music when she was living in Eastern Europe. However, she didn't become inspired to learn violin until she heard the sublime performance of Julie Sharp, a graduate from Juilliard and Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM).

Clara petitioned her parents about her aspiration to play beautiful music, too, so she began studying the violin at the age of 8. She has enjoyed practicing and performing ever since.

Julie Sharp and her mother were wonderful mentors for Clara and her family, and the Sharps  graciously introduced her to three of Julie's important teachers. Subsequently, Clara studied piano with Millette Alexander, Baroque violin with Lisa Rautenberg of the Yale Collegium Musicum, and the Franco-Belgian violin techniques of Ivan Galamian with Dr. Stephan Tieszen of Yale School of Music and Dr. Ann Setzer of Juilliard.

In middle school, Clara began studying in Dr. Setzer's studio at Ivan Galamian's rigorous Meadowmount School of Music. Clara has continued studying and performing in the summers at Meadowmount after she began studying in Dr. Setzer's studio in Juilliard's Pre-College program which runs concomitantly with high school semesters.