Dawn Harms, violin

Dawn Harms leads an active musical life as a violinist, violist, chamber musician, and conductor. A member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Dawn also performs as co-concertmaster with the Oakland East Bay Symphony. She is a member of the Harmida Piano Trio and the founder and conductor of the Elixir Chamber Orchestra. She is also the co-founder and music director of the Music at Kirkwood chamber music festival, and currently serves on the music faculty at Stanford University.

This past spring Dawn played concertos with Symphony Parnassus in Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, the Paradise, CA Symphony, the Flagler Symphony in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. Last May, Dawn was featured in a concert at the Guggenheim Museum premiering works by Jake Heggie and Gordon Getty, where she collaborated with Frederica von Stade, Zheng Cao, Eugenia Zukerman, and Matt Haimowitz. The highlight of this appearance included a once-in-a-lifetime ride in the “Jetty” -- Gordon Getty's private jet.

Her solo recording “The Black Swan” features music for violin and harp, and her latest solo album, “The Hot Canary,” was released in January, 2005. She has also collaborated with her cousin Tom Waits on his recordings “Alice” and “Blood Money.”

For ten years Dawn was first violinist with the Harrington String Quartet, winners of the Grand Prize at the prestigious Fischoff and Evian International chamber music competitions. She played first violin for five years with the Santa Fe Opera.

Harms, a strong advocate for children's music education, was conductor and music director of the Amarillo Youth Orchestra and continues to design and perform educational concerts throughout the United States.

Dawn earned a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory, where she was a student of Dorothy Delay and Josef Gingold, and a Master of Music from the State University of New York at Stonybrook.