Virtuoso violinist Niv Ashkenazi has captivated audiences with his heartfelt musicianship and emotional performances. Praised for his “extremely colourful interpretations, characterized by maturity and authority” (Pizzicato Magazine), he has made several Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center appearances, and has performed in Europe, the Middle East, and across North America.

In the 2019–2020 season, he was the first ever Artist in Residence at the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya). His debut album, Niv Ashkenazi: Violins of Hope, released in March 2020 on Albany Records to international critical acclaim and was named one of the 10 best classical recordings of 2020 by the Chicago Tribune. Niv was one of the featured soloists, alongside Yo-Yo Ma, for the soundtrack of the PBS documentary Harbor from the Holocaust. His performances and educational work with Violins of Hope have been featured on ABC7, Good Day LA, Spectrum 1 News, Telemundo, in the Los Angeles Times, and other major news outlets.

Niv has performed with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Juilliard String Quartet, Cavani Quartet, and Ariel Quartet. Niv holds both a B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School, where his teachers included Itzhak Perlman and Glenn Dicterow.

Bassoonist Leah Kohn is a versatile musician with a passion for unusual repertoire. She is also an active performer on the baroque bassoon and contrabassoon. Dyad, her duo with violinist Niv Ashkenazi, has performed on concert series throughout California and on the East Coast. Together they founded Oak Hill Music Festival, a chamber music festival serving the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire and Vermont. Their arrangement of Bloch’s Prayer was recently published by TrevCo Music Publishing, and they presented Reena Esmail’s Nadiya at the 2021 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Symposium. Dyad also works with Street Symphony, an organization that brings music to underserved communities.

As well as freelance work in Los Angeles, Leah has performed at the Lake George Music Festival, as a fellow at the Norfolk Music Festival, at several programs at the Banff Centre, and at Fresh Inc. Festival with Fifth House Ensemble. She received her DMA from the University of Southern California as a student of Judith Farmer, with an academic field in musicology and elective fields in Arts Leadership and early music. She holds an MM from The Juilliard School and a BM from the Manhattan School of Music, both as a student of Frank Morelli.

As an educator, she maintains a private teaching studio in Los Angeles, as well as coaching for several local youth orchestras. She is a teaching artist for the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony’s Patchwork of Cultures program, which uses music as a cultural bridge between communities.

In addition to her performing career, she is a past director of Junior Chamber Music’s Los Angeles and Conejo Valley branches, and she was the producer of the album Niv Ashkenazi: Violins of Hope, which was named one of the Chicago Tribune’s best classical recordings of 2020.