BIOGRAPHY

Violinist Sharon Roffman, prize winner in the 2003 Naumburg Foundation International Competition, made her solo debut playing Tchaikovsky Concerto with the New Jersey Symphony in 1996 under the baton of Music Director Zdenek Macal. Since then, Ms. Roffman has forged a unique career, equally sought after as a soloist, chamber musician and music educator throughout the United States and abroad. In March 2004, Ms. Roffman made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins with Itzhak Perlman playing and conducting; the same piece was featured in a “Live from Lincoln Center ” broadcast showcasing the Perlman Music Program in 2003. As a chamber musician, Ms. Roffman has collaborated with members of the Brentano Quartet, the Miami Quartet, Opus One Piano Quartet, and Guarneri quartet, among others. Since 2004, Ms. Roffman has been performing with flutist Paula Robison in bi-annual concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring concertos by Vivaldi. Ms. Roffman has been a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in both the Meet the Music and Inside Chamber Music series. Ms. Roffman is also a member of Counter)Induction, a chamber music group committed to performing the works of contemporary composers.

Ms. Roffman has diverse musical interests. She has made regular appearances on Sesame Street , both singing and playing the violin since 1981. As a child, Ms. Roffman performed at the Metropolitan Opera as a member of the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus. Ms. Roffman has also been featured on The Today Show (NBC), and WQXR-FM's “The Listening Room” and “Young Artist Showcase.” Ms. Roffman received the Composer's Apprentice Award from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1992, and subsequently studied composition with Bruce Adolphe from 1992-94. Her sextet for strings and winds, “Derevo,” was premiered at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center by the Chelsea Chamber Ensemble in 1994. In 2005, Ms. Roffman composed, performed and recorded a piece for solo violin to accompany a television/radio commercial for the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation. With an avid interest in technology, in 1999 Ms. Roffman wrote and produced a web site entitled “An Interactive Recital,” which included information pertaining to a recital which was simulcast live over the Internet, a relatively new feat at the time. In 2007, Ms. Roffman worked as the musical consultant with artist Doug Aiken on his film, Sleepwalkers, which was projected for two weeks on the exterior of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City . Ms. Roffman created and performed a seminar at New York 's Italian Wine Merchants that juxtaposed fine violins and fine wines in an effort to educate non-musicians' ears to the subtleties of sound and color. Also eager to pair food with music, Ms. Roffman created an annual series of chamber music and children's concerts at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Tarrytown , NY , co-presented by the restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Ms. Roffman received a Graduate Diploma from the Juilliard School in 2003, where she was a student of Itzhak Perlman and Donald Weilerstein. Ms. Roffman earned both a Masters Degree and Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Donald Weilerstein. From 1995-97, she studied with Robert Lipsett in the resident honors program at the University of Southern California . Prior to enrolling at USC, her major teachers were Peter Winograd, Patinka Kopec, and Nicole DiCecco at the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Roffman has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Taos School of Music, the Aspen Festival and School, the Verbier Festival, Encore School for Strings, Meadowmount School for Strings, and the Perlman Music Program, where she was a student for two years and subsequently a teaching assistant to Patinka Kopec. Awards include first prize of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's 1995 Young Artists Auditions, second prize in the 1996 Stulberg International String Competition, and second prize in the 1998 National American String Teachers Association competition. In 1993, Ms. Roffman was the featured soloist for the 75 th Anniversary Gala of the Manhattan School of Music, where she was a student in the Preparatory Division from 1981-1995.

In addition to her accomplishments as a performer, Ms. Roffman was appointed concert artist and professor of violin at Kean University in 2002, and is a member of the faculty of the Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly , New Jersey , and the Manhattan School of Music Pre-college division. Ms. Roffman also recently founded and is the director of ClassNotes, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing chamber music to public schools.