Rachel Lee Zhao is a violinist and educator in Northern, Virginia. She recently relocated from Chicago, Illinois, to pursue her Artist Diploma from Shenandoah Conservatory. She received her Master of Music in violin performance with Almita Vamos at Roosevelt University in Chicago in 2018. Zhao began her violin studies at the age of four—surrounded by the rural farmland of Virginia—under the instruction of Ewa Tryszynska, and the Audubon Quartet. This awareness of nature has been a primal force of the soul of her musicality. In 2015, Rachel graduated with a Bachelors of Music in violin performance from Oberlin Conservatory, studying with David Bowlin. Rachel is inspired by contemporary chamber music, and hopes to continue to promote and collaborate with young composers, creating sustainable art for the future.