Bunny is a conservatory-trained violinist with advanced music

degrees from New England Conservatory of Music in Boston

and a master’s degree in music performance from Yale

University Graduate School of Music. She has performed in

many orchestras and chamber groups including the Boston

Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony

& Buffalo Philharmonic. She was concertmaster for

Grand Rapids Symphony, New Orleans Symphony,

Charleston Symphony and guest leader of the

London Symphony Orchestra, and concertmaster of the

Orquesta Sinfonica de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

She also has performed in the pit and on stage for ballet,

opera and musical theater companies around the world.

She enjoys playing with others and also as a soloist..

She has enjoyed performing in many countries such as

Portugal, France, Itally, Israel, England, Spanish Canaries,

Japan, Korea, Canada and Germany and of course

almost every state of the USA on tour and in residence and will share her stories and love of travel with you. 

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Bunny’s favorite violinist is David Oistrakh and her style is influenced by the film composer and conductor John Williams, the Beatles, and many rock, jazz, classical and world music stars.

 

Bunny is an experienced and patient teacher of strings (violin, viola, cello and upright bass) and piano. She was the founding director of the Foxborough Regional Charter School’s Orchestral Instrumental Program. She taught coached chamber music and taught violin at New England Conservatory’s Preparatory Department and has taught in the Easton, Worcester, Plymouth and Cambridge school departments.

 

Bunny also likes organizing and conducting. She was the director of the Bristol Chamber Orchestra and also was the founding conductor of the Sharon Community Chamber Orchestra. She is passionate about the creation of a new orchestra called the Non-Conformists Orchestra, highlighting the performances of professional musicians who don’t identify as the gender they were assigned to at birth. 

 

She is equally happy teaching students from very young and to seniors. She can start you off from the beginning  or coach you as you prepare for auditions. She will share her knowledge of how to read music and interpret it so it sounds like the ‘real thing’. If you have a favorite song or piece, she’ll be happy to help you learn how to play it. 

 

Some of her students have won positions in district and All-State Orchestra and have won entrance to the prestigious Juiilliard Preparatory School and New England Conservatory of Music.

 

SMx Bunny Shilakowsky

violin@shilakowskyarts.com