Simin Ganatra

Assistant Professor of Violin

B.M. The Oberlin Conservatory

Simin Ganatra has won wide recognition for her performances throughout the United States and abroad. She has been described by critics as an "excellent and unique violinist" and heralded for "creating a miraculous sense of flow and other worldly beauty." An active performer, she is currently first violinist of the Pacifica Quartet. As a founding member of this award winning group, she regularly tours throughout the world performing over 90 concerts per year, most recently in Japan, England, Spain, Germany, and throughout the US. She has performed in such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Smithsonian, Wigmore Hall, and Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. Collaborations include performances with Paul Katz, Michael Tree, Menahem Pressler, Ursula Oppens, WuHan, and the Emerson, Ying, and St. Lawrence Quartets.

She is the recipient of several awards and prizes, including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the Cleveland Quartet Award, and top prizes at the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the Coleman Chamber Music Competition.

Originally from Los Angeles, Ganatra studied with Idell Low, Robert Lipsett, and Roland and Almita Vamos. She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where she was concertmaster of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra and recipient of the Louis Kaufman Prize for outstanding performance in chamber music. She is currently on the faculty of University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana and is an artist in residence at University of Chicago. She is also currently a member of Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two, performing regularly at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York. She has many recordings on the Cedille Records label, most recently the complete String Quartets of Felix Mendelssohn.