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Michael Yokas, Violinist I grew up in Peabody, Massachusetts, just 20 miles north of Boston. When I was seven years old, there was a demonstration of all the stringed instruments in my elementary school. I went home that day all excited and asked my parents if I could study the violin at school. Little did I know my maternal grandfather had played violin (as well as other instruments) in Greece. Back then it cost just $40 for an entire year of public school lessons, so my parents were fine with that. My mom went to the basement of her parents’ house and dug up my grandfather’s old violin. Of course, having not been played in several years, the bridge had collapsed, and I think there were only two strings left intact. She brought it to a shop and got it all fixed up. That is the violin I played through high school. Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away when I was two years old, so I never really knew him. I received my Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) where I studied with Valeria Vilker-Kuchment of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I had also attended the pre-college Extension Division of NEC prior to that. After I graduated from NEC I freelanced in Boston for a year and then decided that I wanted to keep studying. I came to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1998 to study with Camilla Wicks. I received my Master of Music in 2000 and, since I loved the Bay Area so much, decided to try freelancing here. In the last two years, I have been fortunate to have played regularly with New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, and the Oakland East Bay Symphony. I also perform with the Chamberlain String Quartet, in residence at Cal State, Hayward. Outside the Bay Area, I have performed string quartets on a trans-Atlantic cruise and toured the East Coast with Western Opera Theatre. |
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