Zoe Kushubar, Violin
Zoe Kushubar has been hailed by the Mittelbadische Presse as a violinist who “plays with a fiery spirit and top nuance.” She has been studying the violin for almost 20 years, and she has performed throughout the Eastern United States and in Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic. As a soloist, she has performed with the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra, the Converse Symphony Orchestra, and the Carolina Youth Symphony, with whom she made her orchestral debut at 15. She won first prize at the Young Artist Competitions hosted by the Carolina Youth Symphony (2014) and Converse University (2017), and she was one of three string finalists at the Florida State University Young Artist Competition in 2021. Ms. Kushubar has performed at a variety of venues including the Pfarrkirche St. Johannes in Oppenau, the Imperial Palace in Vienna, Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, and The Village in Summerville, SC; she has performed twice at The Village for their annual concert series. She gave seven full-length recitals during her undergraduate career, and in her last recital she gave the World Premiere of Jon Jeffrey Grier’s Present Affections for Violin and Piano (2020).
A lover of chamber music, Ms. Kushubar has performed both standard classical repertoire and contemporary works by living composers. For two years, she was a member of the Burgin Quartet,
a fellowship ensemble at Florida State University that is dedicated to performing and recording compositions by student composers.
During those two years, she also coached undergraduate chamber ensembles each semester and performed on a number of graduate students’ degree recitals; she also performed with the FSU Jazz Ensemble as a section violinist. Ms. Kushubar was also a member of the 2018 Fellowship Quartet at Chamber Music on the Hill, where she and her colleagues performed Schubert’s Death and the Maiden and Haydn’s “Sunrise” Quartet both in recital and at a local retirement community. At the 2022 Decoda Chamber Music Festival, Ms. Kushubar and her colleagues worked with singer-songwriter Adriel Denae to arrange and perform two of Adriel’s works at the Mile of Music Festival in Appleton, WI.
Also an experienced orchestral musician, Ms. Kushubar has performed with a number of ensembles including the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, Panama City Symphony Orchestra, Spartanburg Philharmonic, and Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra. She has attended prestigious orchestral intensives including Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, and National Youth Orchestra 2; at the latter, she served as Concertmaster for a Side-by-Side Concert at the 23rd Street Armory in Philadelphia, where she performed the concertmaster solos in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Español.
Ms. Kushubar received undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Violin Performance with Honors from Converse University, and she received her Master of Music from Florida State University in 2022. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Maryland at College Park, where she serves as a Graduate Assistant to David Salness. Over the years, she has had the privilege of playing in masterclasses for Paul Kantor, Andrés Cárdenes, Jennifer Koh, Bayla Keyes, Carolyn Huebl, Hal Grossman, Sean Wang, and members of renowned ensembles including the Parker Quartet, Attacca Quartet, Escher Quartet, Cavani Quartet, Gryphon Trio, and Brentano Quartet. Her past instructors and mentors include Lyn Acosta, Jennifer John, Sarah Johnson, Courtney LeBauer, and Shannon Thomas.
In addition to teaching undergraduates and music minors at the University of Maryland, Ms. Kushubar also holds teaching positions at the International School of Music, Stacey Rae Sinclair Music LLC, and Opal Music Studio. She thoroughly enjoys sharing her love of music with students of all ages and backgrounds. She believes anyone can benefit from learning music, whether they partake in it as a hobby or want to pursue it professionally. She challenges her students to new artistic and intellectual heights while providing constructive feedback and ample positive reinforcement. She does her best to cater to the learning needs of every student, and she strongly believes in the power of fostering curiosity and imagination in her teaching approach. She encourages her students to experiment and take risks in the practice rooms, as this allows them to discover both the beauties and challenges of playing the violin in a healthy manner. Ms. Kushubar loves that she learns just as much from teaching, if not more, than from her own practicing. Outside of her musical studies, she enjoys spending time outdoors, exercising, doing jigsaw puzzles, trying new cuisine, and playing with her R&B band in Maryland.