Doori
Na violin

Known for technical command, tonal subtlety, and expressive range, violinist Doori Na moves among orchestral leadership, chamber and contemporary music, dance, and recording. In 2018, he appeared with the San Francisco Symphony in Bach’s Double Violin Concerto alongside Itzhak Perlman under Michael Tilson Thomas.

Na serves as concertmaster of the Fort Greene Orchestra, whose sold-out, immersive Brooklyn performances attract new audiences. He has appeared with it as soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Since 2013, he has been a violinist with New Chamber Ballet, performing and premiering works for solo violin in direct collaboration with dance. A member of Decoda, Carnegie Hall’s only Affiliate Ensemble, he leads its Winter Retreat for adult chamber musicians.

Na has performed frequently at Carnegie Hall and toured Europe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and pianist Brad Mehldau, including the Berlin Philharmonie. His recording and screen work includes Chick Corea’s The Continents, Brad Mehldau and Orpheus’s Variations on a Melancholy Theme, Timo Andres’s The Blind Banister, and Jay Wadley’s score for the Apple TV series Franklin. He has also championed music by historically underrepresented composers, including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

A San Francisco native, Na is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Itzhak Perlman.

Known for technical command, tonal subtlety, and expressive range, violinist Doori Na has built a wide-ranging career encompassing orchestral leadership, chamber and contemporary music, dance, education, and recording. In 2018, he appeared with the San Francisco Symphony in Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, performing alongside Itzhak Perlman under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

Na serves as concertmaster of the Fort Greene Orchestra, a Brooklyn ensemble that has developed a devoted young following through sold-out, immersive performances designed to welcome new audiences into classical music. He has also appeared as a soloist with the orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Bartók’s Romanian Dances.

He is concertmaster of the Central Chamber Orchestra and serves as Program Coordinator and Liaison for the Central Chamber Series, where he is also a resident musician and frequent chamber-music performer.

A longtime violinist with Argento New Music Project, Na has performed premieres and international programs with the ensemble and served as concertmaster for selected projects. His chamber-music collaborators have included Juilliard String Quartet musicians Roger Tapping and Areta Zhulla, violist Molly Carr, and members of the New York Philharmonic, with whom he has performed through organizations including Central Chamber Series and the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach.

Na has appeared at Carnegie Hall on numerous occasions, including performances with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and Decoda and on the Festival Chamber Music series. His performances have also taken him to the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Berlin Philharmonie, and Vienna’s Musikverein. He has performed and toured in the United States, Europe, and Japan with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. His European tour with Orpheus and pianist Brad Mehldau included the Berlin Philharmonie, and he appears on their album Variations on a Melancholy Theme.

Since 2013, Na has been a violinist with New Chamber Ballet, performing and premiering works for solo violin in direct collaboration with dance. His work with the company has included performances in Germany, Guatemala, and Lake Tahoe. A member of Decoda—the only independent ensemble recognized as an Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall—he leads its Winter Retreat for adult amateur chamber musicians and participates in the ensemble’s performance and community-engagement work. Since 2016, he has served as an artist-in-residence with pianoSonoma, and since 2014 he has performed regularly with ensembles at Trinity Church Wall Street.

Committed to broadening the classical canon, Na has explored and championed music by historically underrepresented composers. Among these projects was a performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s complete Suite for Violin and Piano with pianist Peter Dugan at Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center.

Na’s recording and screen work includes Chick Corea’s The Continents, Brad Mehldau and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s Variations on a Melancholy Theme, Timo Andres’s The Blind Banister, and violin on Jay Wadley’s score for the Apple TV series Franklin. He first appeared on the nationally syndicated program From the Top at age fourteen and later returned for additional performances and projects.

An alumnus of the Perlman Music Program, Na first attended the program in 2004 and subsequently participated in residencies in Florida, Vermont, New York, and Israel. A San Francisco native, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where his teachers included Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Donald Weilerstein.