Marisa Ishikawa
Executive Director
Dr. Ishikawa is an avid performer, educator, and entrepreneur based in Houston, TX. As a teacher, she is passionate about cultivating a love for music in her students. As a performer in the internationally renowned Carpe Diem String Quartet and co-founder of the arts non-profit Austin Camerata, she is devoted to curating and presenting inclusive and engaging performances that showcase diverse composers and styles of music. In her free time, Dr. Ishikawa enjoys cooking and practicing yoga.
Dr. Ishikawa was born in Boulder, Colorado and began playing the violin at the age of three. Between 2011 and 2015, Dr. Ishikawa earned a Bachelor of Music with Highest Honors from the University of Colorado Boulder. Additionally, she received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with High Distinction from CU Leeds School of Business. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Ishikawa studied with Brian Lewis at the University of Texas Austin, where she received the Starling Distinguished Violinist Scholarship and earned a Master of Music degree. In 2020, she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from CU Boulder under Charles Wetherbee. During this time, she worked as a Teaching Assistant giving individual lessons to undergraduate BM and BA violin students and assisting in major Music History courses and non-major Music Appreciation classes. Her final thesis centered around the topic “Keeping and Retaining Audiences in Today’s Classical World,” and explored reasons for and solutions to classical music’s declining audience population. Solutions include forming relationships with audience members, programming underrepresented musical voices, and presenting artistically collaborative performances.
Dr. Ishikawa has worked with numerous artists, such as Glenn Dicterow, Naoko Tanaka, Alexander Kerr, Rachel Barton Pine, Ani Kavafian, Peter Otto, and Stephen Rose, the Takács String Quartet, and the Miró String Quartet. As a soloist, Dr. Ishikawa has performed with the National Repertory Orchestra, the Austin Civic Orchestra, and the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestra. Additionally, she has participated in the National Repertory Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival.
As a performer, Dr. Ishikawa serves as the second violinist of the internationally recognized Carpe Diem String Quartet, a boundary-breaking ensemble that has earned widespread critical and audience acclaim for its innovative programming and electrifying performances. With the Quartet, she has performed in Carnegie Hall and Jordan Hall, as well as throughout Europe and China. She appears on the quartet’s recording, "Dances of the Yogurt Maker," which features the string chamber works of Turkish composer Erberk Eryilmaz. This album was released May 2021 on the MSR label and was produced by Grammy Award winner Judith Sherman. Dr. Ishikawa also composed her first work for string quartet as part of the quartet’s interactive virtual performance “An American Story.” This performance was sponsored by the PNC Arts Alive Grant and was released in May 2021.
As an entrepreneur, Dr. Ishikawa co-founded the nonprofit chamber music organization Austin Camerata. Its mission is to enrich the city of Austin, TX by introducing new audiences to the world of chamber music through creative concerts, artistic collaborations, and community outreach. Dedicated to broadening the audience for chamber music, Austin Camerata performs an array of repertoire, from the most revered classical masterpieces to newly written, genre-defying works. The ensemble is known for creative artistic collaborations that augment the music’s emotional power, and performances frequently feature collaborations with visual art, creative writing, and dance ranging in style from flamenco, to hip-hop, to ballet. Dr. Ishikawa is also co-founder and faculty of Opus 1 Chamber Music School. Opus 1 creates experiences and ensembles that are tailored to the unique personality and playing of every student, and that foster a sense of community, high standards, and enthusiasm for each other and chamber music. Whether a student intends to pursue music as a career or as a lifelong hobby, Opus 1 aims to equip students with the interpersonal and musical skills and passions that chamber music has the unique potential to provide.