Becca Kasdan is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she serves as a Violin Teaching Assistant and studies with Meg Freivogel of the Jupiter String Quartet. As a Teaching Assistant, Becca is a violinist in the Illinois Modern Ensemble, teaches Major and Non-Major violin lessons, teaches scale technique classes to violin music majors, and coaches chamber music. Becca is also the Coordinator and an Instructor at the Illinois Community Music Academy where she teaches studio lessons, coaches chamber music and orchestra sectionals, leads curriculum meetings for over a dozen instructors, and adjudicates auditions. Previously, Becca studied with Violaine Melancon at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins where she received her MM and BM in Violin Performance. At Peabody, Becca served as the Co-Concertmaster of the Peabody Concert Orchestra, Concertmaster of the Peabody Modern Orchestra, and Principal of the Peabody Chamber Orchestra and Opera Orchestra.

Deeply passionate about chamber music, Becca has worked closely with members of the Juilliard, Jupiter, Emerson, Chiara, Orion, Ying, Brentano, and Borromeo String Quartets among others. Her string quartet, the Vernon Quartet, was selected as Peabody’s only Honors Ensemble for the 2017-2018 academic year in which they played at the Society of Four Arts in Florida and had the pleasure of performing with former cellist of the Brentano String Quartet, Michael Kannen. She has performed in masterclasses for several distinguished artists including Midori Goto, Bruno Eicher (Assistant Concertmaster MET), Axel Strauss, and Stefan Milenkovich. As a chamber musician and orchestral player, she has collaborated with many esteemed musicians including David Ying, Yael Weiss, Benjamin Zander, David Zinman, and Leon Fleischer. Becca has attended many prestigious summer music festivals including the Heifetz Institute as well as the Manchester Music Festival, the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, and Bowdoin International Music Festival where she has been awarded fellowships. Becca is a faculty member at the Easton Chamber Music Festival in Massachusetts and has presented at the Paul Rolland String Pedagogy Workshop, American String Teacher Association’s National Conference, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

In addition, Becca is extremely devoted to bringing music into the community. She served as the first co-director of the Peabody String Sinfonia, a conductor-less string ensemble at Peabody Conservatory that performs exclusively at community venues. Becca has also been on a discussion panel with Midori discussing community engagement and outreach in the 21st century. Currently, Becca is on the Board of Trustees for the Volunteer Musicians for the Arts in Boston, MA where she received a Community Leadership Award in 2021. Becca is the founder and director of Carle Community Concerts in Champaign, IL which brings weekly live-stream performances to hospital patients. Becca Kasdan is the 2018 recipient of the Johns Hopkins President’s Commendation for Achievement in the Arts, the Grace Clagett Ranney Prize in Chamber Music, the String Achievement Award from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a member of the prestigious music guild, Pi Kappa Lambda.