Michael Yokas, a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra since 2003, moved to Berlin in the summer of 2004. In addition to travelling back and forth to the Bay Area for New Century several times a year, he is steadily building a mostly freelance career in Germany. His most recent engagement was as guest concertmaster in the Berliner Symphoniker's production of Mozart´s The Magic Flute, performed underground in a new U-Bahn subway station. Michael was hired by the Brandenburger Symphoniker, just outside of Berlin, for their 2008-2009 Season.

Also, in addition to teaching a small private studio, he has performed regularly with the Deutsches Kammer Orchester and the Neues Kammer Orchester Potsdam. In 2007-2008 he performed the solo part of Vivaldi´s Four Seasons concerti with a small chamber orchestra for the Atze Musik Theater in their production of Thomas Sutter´s The Four Seasons.

Formerly a resident of San Francisco, Michael was a member of the Santa Rosa Symphony, and played with the Oakland and Berkeley Symphonies, as well as with the San Francisco Symphony. He was a member of the Pacific Piano Trio and the Chamberlain String Quartet, and holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (BM, 1996) and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM, 1997), where he studied with Camilla Wicks. Michael and his partner Matthias Erbe, also an active violinist as well as a respected teacher in Berlin, return to the Bay Area each summer to renew friendships and maintain connections with the west coast music scene.