Keila Wakao, violin, and Gordon Back, piano

Sunday 2 July 2023 at 3:00 pm

First prize, 2021 Menuhin Violin Competition
First prize, 2021 Stulburg String Competition

Keila Wakao was awarded the 1st prize and the Junior Composer Award in the 2021 Menuhin International Violin Competition.  She was also the 1st prize winner of the Stulberg International String Competition and was awarded the Bach prize in 2021.​

​Born in 2006, 16 year old violinist Keila Wakao is from Boston, MA and began playing the violin at the age of 3. At age 6, the late Mr. Joseph Silverstein accepted Keila as a student. Currently, she is an eleventh grader at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and studies with Donald Weilerstein and Soovin Kim at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.  Keila has also been receiving Kyoko Takezawa's private instruction in Japan.

Keila has performed solos and recitals throughout the United States, Japan, Germany, Singapore and the United Kingdom in venues such as the Cadogan Hall(London), Victoria Concert Hall (Singapore), Jordan Hall(Boston), Carnegie Weill Recital Hall (New York City), and the Hibiki Hall(Japan).

At age 9, Keila gave her first solo performance with an orchestra, and since then, she has performed with orchestras including the Chattanooga Symphony, the Adelphi Orchestra, the Kalamazoo Symphony, Resound Collective and the New Philharmonia Orchestra.

In the upcoming season, Keila will be performing with the Reading Symphony, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Lexington Symphony, and the Eugene Symphony. She will also perform at the Gower Music Festival in the UK, in the Summer of 2023.

In 2017, Keila was invited to speak and perform in TEDxBoston, and every Summer since 2018, she has been participating in the Perlman Music Program, where she studies with Itzahk Perlman, Li Lin, and Catherine Cho.

Keila plays on a 1745 fine old Italian violin by G.B Guadagnini on generous loan from the Florian Leonhard Fellowship.