Concerts

Ilana Zaks-Nederlander

American violinist Ilana Zaks-Nederlander has been praised as “fearless, refreshing, and commanding” (Boston Music Intelligencer) and “captivating and delightful” (Worcester Telegram). A dynamic soloist, educator, and interdisciplinary collaborator, she has appeared with the Pittsburgh Symphony under John Williams and Manfred Honeck, and in concert with Anne-Sophie Mutter. She has soloed with more than a dozen orchestras, including the Boston Civic Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Cascade Symphony, and has performed at major venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, and the Berliner Philharmonie.

Zaks-Nederlander most recently served as a first violinist with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, where she was a frequent performer in the Symphony’s Chamber Music Series at Nordstrom Recital Hall and at the multimedia performance space Octave 9. She has served on the chamber music faculty of the Seattle Conservatory of Music and Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras. In Summer 2025, she joined the violin faculty of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Rollins College Department of Music. Now based in Central Florida, she coaches the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras and performs regularly with the Atlanta Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra and Opera, and the Orlando Philharmonic and Bach Festival Orchestra in Winter Park.

As a scholar-performer, Zaks-Nederlander has presented her lecture-recital Violinists Who Composed: Notes from the Player’s Pen at more than a dozen universities, including Northwestern University, Brandeis University, Duke University, the University of Miami, Florida State University, and the University of Washington. During the 2025–2026 season, her engagements include performances at the Coudert Institute, Norton Museum of Art, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens, the Morse Museum, Historic Casa Feliz, Sarasota Music Archive, and the Boris Lurie Art Foundation (Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, Hunter College, and the University of Houston). She also appears as a soloist with the Sarasota Chamber Orchestra (March 2026) and Space Coast Symphony, premiering a new concerto by Chris Marshall, written and commissioned for her, as well as the Danny Elfman Violin Concerto. (Spring 2027).

Since 2020, Zaks-Nederlander has curated and performed Sound Worlds, a multimedia concert experience for violin and electronics exploring identity, illness, memory, and resilience. Developed during her fellowship at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media and supported by major national and international grants, the project features immersive works by contemporary composers and incorporates live visuals and post-concert dialogue.

Zaks-Nederlander holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Yale School of Music, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and Ani Kavafian, and she trained extensively with Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program. Her debut recording, The Persistence of Memory (2020), released as a visual album on Amazon Prime, was among the first of its kind in classical music and reflects her longstanding commitment to interdisciplinary creation.

Her honors include the Central Florida United Arts Individual Artist Award (2025), Deering Estate Artist-in-Residence (Miami, 2025–2026), University of Connecticut Artist Award (2025), top prize at the Fontainebleau-Ravel Competition, Department of Arts and Culture Bellevue, Auburn, Kent and Seattle (WA), the Yale Broadus Earle Prize, the Yale Women Faculty Forum Award, first prize winner of BMOP Concerto Competitions, and the Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture Opportunity Fund Award. She maintains a concerto repertoire of more than twenty works, including rarely performed pieces such as David Baker’s Concerto for Violin and Jazz Orchestra and Kati Agócs’ Concerto for Violin and Percussion Ensemble.

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Valeria Polunina

Russian pianist Valeria Polunina, born into an artistic family in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, began concertizing internationally before she was a teenager. Since making her orchestral debut at the age of 15 with Russia’s renowned BACH Chamber Orchestra, Ms. Polunina has gracefully transitioned into a mature artist of technical prowess and elegant artistry. Active as a vocal accompanist, Ms. Polunina collaborated with some of the world’s leading organizations, including the Mariinsky Foundation of America, The Metropolitan Opera, and The Bolshoi Theatre. Raised in Moscow, Ms. Polunina won numerous competitions, both national and international. Her performances have taken her to the most prestigious festivals and halls in the USA and Europe. She has on numerous occasions made appearances in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and The Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory. She has recently appeared in recital at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition First Prize Winners’ Recital at Carnegie Hall hosted by Valeriy Gergiev, and on well-known TV show Good Morning America accompanying the Metropolitan Opera star Pretty Yende. Ms. Polunina currently performs as an accompanist with various artists throughout the United States and Europe.

In 2018, Ms. Polunina accepted position as a Head of Music staff at the Luzerner Theatre, Switzerland. Her contract with the opera ensemble starts in August 2018-2019 season. In 2017-2018, as an operatic pianist and répétiteur, Ms. Polunina was invited to the Metropolitan Opera as a rehearsal pianist in the production of Puccini’s La Bohème conducted by Alexander Soddy and as an assistant conductor for The Metropolitan Opera + The Juilliard School's an "Evening of Verdi" conducted by Evan Rogister. Ms. Polunina is a guest vocal coach at the Bolshoi Theatre where she works closely with Dmitri Vdovin as well as current and recent graduates of the Bolshoi Theatre Young Artist Opera Program. Her recital engagements this season include concerts with tenor Kang Wang at The Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory; at Teatro del Lago's Gala Concert “Voices of the World” in Frutillar, Chile; in New York at the Park Avenue Armory and Bruno Walter Auditorium of The New York Public Library Recital Series; and Musical Tributes by Mariinsky Artists in Miami, Florida, USA. In recent years Ms. Polunina has served as class pianist in the orchestral conducting classes of Alan Gilbert and Jim Ross, and as a vocal coach and rehearsal pianist in Colorado’s Crested Butte Music Festival, Marcello Giordani Young Artist Program, and for several Juilliard Opera productions, including Die Zauberflöte conducted by David Stern.

Ms. Polunina has collaborated with many of the world’s leading solo and collaborative artists including Gerald Finley, Pretty Yende, Angel Blue, and Sofia Fomina. Invited in 2015 as a member of the distinguished Solti Peretti répétiteur residency in Venice Italy, Ms. Polunina had the privilege of playing under the baton of Richard Bonynge.

Ms. Polunina received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Gnessin’s Academy of Music in Moscow under Marina Drozdova (who is one of few students of Professor Mariya Yudina) and her Master of Music in collaborative piano at The Juilliard School studying with Margo Garrett, Diane Richardson, and Jonathan Feldman.

Ms. Polunina is a graduate Metropolitan Opera's Young Artists Development Program.

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Brannon Warn-Johnston

Brannon Warn-Johnston's piece "A Year with Cancer" will be performed at this concert by Ilana Zaks-Nederlander.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Brannon Warn-Johnston often takes inspiration for her compositions from her lived experiences, such as backpacking and camping trips with her violin, special moments with her family and her journey with cancer. 

Brannon was a 2024-25 Luna Composition Lab Fellow and recently participated in the Juilliard Summer Composition Program. Also selected as an NPR Learning and Media Lab Fellow, she has been featured on National Public Radio’s From the Top show: “Young Pacific Northwest Talent,” as well as on Classical KING’s Northwest Focus Live. 

Brannon’s works have been performed in major concert venues including Carnegie Hall and by orchestras and ensembles such as: the Seattle Symphony, International Contemporary Ensemble, Symphony Tacoma, Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Festival Orchestra, Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras, Ensemble Connect, and Seattle Conservatory of Music. 

Her music has received awards from: Tribeca New Music Young Composer Competition, Foundation for Modern Music International Composers Competition, National Federation of Music Clubs Composers Contest, Simon-Fiset Composition Competition, and more. 

Dedicated to sharing her music with communities in accessible and meaningful ways, Brannon has been honored to have her works such as “A Year with Cancer” receive support from multiple grants, allowing them to be performed in community venues such as libraries, art galleries, hospitals and museums. Most recently her electroacoustic collaboration “Resonant Coast,” which aims to bring awareness to the beauty and fragility of Connecticut’s coastline, was selected for the Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Award.