Ari Issacman-Beck

Praised for his “enormous soul and a big, vibrant sound,” (The Reading Eagle), violinist Ari Isaacman-Beck, the first violinist of the Dalí Quartet, is a captivating and multi-faceted artist whose solo and chamber music performances have taken him all over the world, to venues such as Jordan Hall, the Kennedy Center, Zürich’s Tönhalle, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. An award-winning violinist, he was the 2016 winner of the Lili Boulanger International Competition, won second prize in 2006 at the Sion-Valais International Violin Competition, and received the prize for the best performance of the commissioned work, Thomas McKinley’s Dialogues, at the 2017 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition. For eight years, he performed in North America, Europe, and China as the violinist of Trio Cleonice, an award-winning piano trio described by the Boston Globe as “abundantly sincere and absorbing.”

A committed educator, Isaacman-Beck is on the faculty of West Chester University of Pennsylvania’s Wells School of Music, where the Dalí Quartet is the Quartet-in-Residence. He was previously on the faculty of the Sunderman Conservatory of Gettysburg College from 2017-2020 alternately as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin and Interim Director of Orchestras; he also recently completed a teaching and performing residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in September, 2019. He has previously served on the faculties of the Kinhaven Music School, Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, New England Conservatory’s Preparatory Division, Rivers Conservatory, and Junior Greenwood Music Camp. Additionally, he has presented masterclasses at the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Bucknell University, the University of Hawaii, and Husson College. He received degrees from the Cleveland Institute, Juilliard, Mannes, and New England Conservatory; his teachers have included Donald Weilerstein, Ronald Copes, Mark Steinberg, Laurie Smukler, David Updegraff, and Mary West.

Learn more about Ari.