About Julia Sakharova By Marci Janas
	Back to the main story		Violin performance major Julia Sakharova ’03, first prizewinner in the 47th Olga Koussevitzky Competition for Strings, is 22 years old and a native of Zheleznovodsk, Russia. A student of Milan Vitek, professor of violin, she is concertmaster of the Oberlin Orchestra and a member of the Erato Quartet, which won the 2001 Coleman-Barstow Award for Strings. Two years after beginning violin studies she made her professional debut, at the age of 8, with the Moldova Symphony Orchestra. By age 10 she was performing in recitals in the United States. While studying at the Central Special Music School (part of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory), she performed throughout Russia, in Europe, and in Japan. In 1995 she won the Music of Central and Eastern Europe International Competition. She also received a special prize from the jurors of the International Sarasate Competition in Spain. She made her first recording, Russian Violin School, in 1997 on the Sony label. In 2001 she helped launch the Tavros record label with a recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Elegiaque Piano Trios. In 1998 she made her solo debut with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in summer music festivals at Colmar in France, Baden-Baden in Germany, Oberlin at Casalmaggiore in Italy, the Weathersfield Music Festival in Vermont, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. In 1999, upon graduating from the Central Special Music School, she was accepted into the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. While at Oberlin, Sakharova has been a finalist in the National Solo Competition sponsored by the Association of String Teachers of America and she appeared as soloist with the Oberlin Orchestra under the baton of composer John Williams in a concert held at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
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