Diana Seitz, violin

• School: University of Texas Rio Grand Valley
• Location: Edinburg, Texas, USA

Violinist Diana Seitz is “a fresh and passionate presence” on the contemporary classical music scene. Born into a family of professional singers, Diana grew up back stage, traveling with her parents’ popular band all over the former Soviet Union. She made her debut at the age of nine as a soloist with a Chamber Orchestra in Moscow, Russia. As a teenager, she went on to become a laureate of Azerbaijan National Young Musician’s Competition, performing Paganini’s Violin Concerto no.1 with the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Orchestra, including a fiendishly difficult Cadenza by E. Sauret .

A refugee, forced to leave her Homeland after severe ethnic persecution, Diana stepped off an airplane onto US soil in 1993 and never looked back. She has performed all around the US, including solo appearances with the Valley Symphony Orchestra (Edinburg, TX), Oklahoma University Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Civic Orchestra and Kinnor Philharmonic Orchestra, Endless Mountain Music Festival Symphony Orchestra (Corning, NY) and Lancaster Symphony Orchestra (PA). In the words of Maestro Gunzenhauser – music director and conductor of Lancaster Symphony Orchestra – “Diana Seitz is a remarkable violinist, whose technique is only a mere tool that allows her soul to shine through. I have conducted Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with such soloists as Itzhak Perlman and Oscar Shumsky. Diana’s performance of this iconic piece was equal to those musicians’ performances both technically and musically. Receiving a 10-minute standing ovation after her performance, she followed it up with a captivating encore – her own arrangement of Amazing Grace – once more raising the audience to its feet.”

Diana is a graduate of Moscow Conservatory, where she studied with a student of renowned Russian violinist David Oistrakh. She continued her studies in the United States with Felicia Moye of Miami String Quartet, receiving a DMA degree in Violin Performance from the University of Oklahoma. Diana Seitz is presently a Violin Faculty at the University of Texas Rio Grand Valley in Edinburg, TX, where she resides with her husband and the youngest of her three children. The joys of parenting and her passion for classical music came together in Diana’s latest project “Mozart Mommy and Me” – an educational concert series bringing classical music to audiences of all ages and backgrounds through toddler-friendly outdoor concerts.

In 2012, Diana recorded and released three singles, including concert crowd pleaser “Amazing Grace”. These can be found on iTunes, Spotify and other online retailers. Diana plays a 1759 Paolo Testore violin.