Biography

Becca Kasdan is currently a Teaching Associate at Brown University and holds a Violin Faculty position at New England Conservatory Preparatory/Expanded Education. Dr. Kasdan teaches applied violin lessons and coaches chamber music for undergraduate and graduate students at Brown University and pre-college lessons to violin students at NEC. Becca Kasdan is also an active freelancer in Rhode Island and Boston performing with groups such as the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Rhode Island Civic Chorale, The Orchestra on the Hill, among others. During the summers, Becca is a faculty member at the Easton Chamber Music Festival and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Summer Chamber Music Workshop.

Becca received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she studied with Meg Freivogel of the Jupiter String Quartet and served as the Violin Teaching Assistant. Previously, Becca studied with Violaine Melancon at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University where she received her MM and BM in Violin Performance.

Deeply passionate about chamber music, Becca has worked closely with members of the Juilliard, Jupiter, Emerson, Chiara, Orion, Ying, Brentano, and Borromeo String Quartets among others. She has performed for several distinguished artists including Midori Goto, Bruno Eicher (Assistant Concertmaster MET), Axel Strauss, and Stefan Milenkovich. Becca has also been a Violin Fellow at several summer music festivals including the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, and the Next Festival of Emerging Artists. As a chamber musician and orchestral player, she has collaborated with many esteemed musicians including David Ying, Michael Kannen, Yael Weiss, Benjamin Zander, David Zinman, and Leon Fleischer. Dr. Kasdan frequently performs U.S. and world premieres of contemporary works and enjoys collaborating with composers.

A passionate and dedicated teacher, Becca has presented masterclasses at the Paul Rolland String Pedagogy Workshop, American String Teacher Association’s National Conference, Tonebase Violin, Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, DePauw University School of Music, and the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. Previously, Becca was a Resident Musician at Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI where she performed with the MusicWorks Collective, organized community initiatives, and taught violin lessons. In Illinois, Dr. Kasdan was a Core Teaching Artist with Apollo’s Fire- the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra in Matteson, IL and Coordinator and Violin Instructor for the Illinois Community Music Academy. Becca was also a violin faculty member at Luzerne Summer Music Festival’s Senior Session in New York.

In 2023, Becca collaborated with the international exhibit Violins of Hope to present her Doctoral Lecture Recital, Imagining New Possibilities for 21st -Century Classical Music Performance: Drawing Inspiration from the Berlin Cabarets of the Weimar Republic. Joined by co-founder Avshalom Weinstein, Becca performed a recital on violins restored and recovered from the Holocaust. The concert featured dancers, musicians, visual artists, and puppeteers from seven countries and a performance of two world premieres. In addition, Becca is extremely devoted to bringing music into the community. She served as the first co- director of the Peabody String Sinfonia, a conductor-less string ensemble at Peabody Conservatory that performs exclusively at community venues. Becca has also been on a discussion panel with Midori discussing community engagement and outreach in the 21st century.

Currently, Becca is on the Board of Trustees for the Volunteer Musicians for the Arts in Boston, MA where she received a Community Leadership Award in 2021. Becca Kasdan is the 2018 recipient of the Johns Hopkins President’s Commendation for Achievement in the Arts, the Grace Clagett Ranney Prize in Chamber Music, the String Achievement Award from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and is a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Kappa Phi’s prestigious music guilds.