Carolyn Willis

Carolyn Willis has performed and taught extensively for the last twenty-five years.  After graduating from Whitman College, where she won the Walla Walla Symphony's James B. Elliott Scholarship and performed with the Teachers' Pet Trio, she moved to New York City to pursue additional studies with Zinaida Gilels and Nina Beilina.  Ms. Willis earned her MM at the University of Washington while maintaining a thriving private studio and performing with the Jasmine String Quartet.  She was the principal violinist as part of a National Endowment for the Arts Theatre production, principal violinist on a Bellevue Schools Arts Foundation grant and has been the recipient of several scholarships and awards.  Ms. Willis serves as adjunct faculty for Bellevue College and is a former Director of Chamber Ensembles for Bellevue Youth Symphony Orchestras.  Her students have won concert series at Academy Chamber Orchestra and the Seattle Aquarium, concertmaster of All State and other principal positions.  Students from her studio have gone on to Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Drexel, Dartmouth, Georgia Tech, Temple University, and U.C. Berkeley