Marisa Ishikawa

Marisa Ishikawa is currently a DMA student at the University of Colorado Boulder. Marisa was born in Boulder, Colorado and began playing the violin at the age of three. Between 2011 and 2015, Marisa earned at CU Boulder a Bachelor of Music with Highest Honors from the College of Music under the instruction of Charles Wetherbee. Additionally, she received a Bachelor of Science: Accounting with High Distinction from the Leeds School of Business. During this time, Marisa won various awards, including the Don and Maria Johnson Music Scholarship and the PricewaterhouseCoopers Accounting Scholarship. From 2015 to 2017, Marisa studied with Brian Lewis at the University of Texas Austin, where she received the Starling Distinguished Violinist Scholarship and earned a Master in Music.  

Throughout her education, Marisa has worked with numerous artists, such as Alexander Kerr, Rachel Barton Pine, Glenn Dicterow, Naoko Tanaka, Ani Kavafian, James Buswell, Peter Otto, and Stephen Rose. As a chamber musician, Marisa has studied with the Takács String Quartet and the Miró String Quartet. Marisa has soloed with the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestra, the Austin Civic Orchestra, and the National Repertory Orchestra, and has participated in the Aspen Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the International Double Reed Society in Granada, Spain. Marisa is also co-founder the classical chamber music festival, Austin Camerata, which enriches communities new to the world of classical music by offering primarily free and interactive concerts in unconventional venues, collaborating with individuals from varying artistic disciplines, and striving for the highest degree of artistic excellence.