Ariel Mitnick, violin (Yonkers, NY), is a graduate of the Harvard/New England Conservatory AB/MM program and completed her masters degree in Violin Performance under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein this past May, having graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in Neurobiology in May of 2013. Recently, Ariel won both the James Yannatos Concerto Competition and the Music Academy of the West Concerto Competition, and her quartet, the Atlas String Quartet, was named a 2014 New England Conservatory Honors Ensemble. She has won numerous other competitions, including those hosted by the Sound Symphony Orchestra, the Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, and the David Froelich Foundation, and was a semi-finalist at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition. Ariel has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the Westchester Philharmonic, the Academy Festival Orchestra, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and the Sound Symphony Orchestra, among others. Her other solo appearances include performances at The Hamptons Music Festival, The Catskill Mountain Music Festival, The Snug Harbor International Music Festival, the Harvard Honorary Degree Dinner, and a Ground Zero memorial concert, as well as on WAMC and WKDB Radio. She has performed at the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Focus! Festival at The Juilliard School, and the International Music Festival of Medellin, as well as in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, the Rose Studio, and Jordan Hall. In addition to Yellow Barn she has been a participant at Music Academy of the West, Sarasota Music Festival, Greenwood Music Camp, and The Perlman Music Program. This summer, Ariel will give a solo recital at the Garden City Music Festival in New York. Past Yellow Barn musician (2013-2014)