About
Smiling Yvette Kraft With Violin

Yvette Kraft is a talented and devoted musician motivated by her passion for music. She began playing the violin at the age of five and had her orchestral debut at the age of eleven with the Spokane Symphony. She has won various concerto competitions in Washington, Idaho, and Michigan.

Yvette’s Expanded Biography

19-year-old Yvette Kraft is a rising star in the violin performance field and is gaining a reputation for her playful presence, thoughtful interpretations and serious expression. A Pacific Northwest native, Yvette debuted with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra at the age of eleven performing the Brüch Violin Concerto’s third movement to thousands of audience members garnering a standing ovation. Since then she has been winning numerous local and national concerto competitions, most recently winning the 2022 SFCM’s Concerto Competition performing the Paganini Concerto No. 1. But Yvette has not shied from the international stage winning 2nd place at the 2020 Grumiaux International Violin Competition in Brussels, and was a semifinalist in the 2019 Louis Spohr International Violin Competition in Weimar, Germany. Yvette is currently a 2021 NPR “From The Top” Fellow and solo performer. She has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the Seattle Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Interlochen Orchestra, the Washington/Idaho Symphony, Seattle’s Philharmonia Northwest Orchestra and the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra. In her pedagogical journey she has performed in multiple national and international summer festivals and in master classes with many prominent musicians including Noah Bendix-Balgley, Vadim Gluzman, Augustin Hadelich, Stefan Jackiw, Ilya Kaler, Shlomo Mintz, and Josef Špaček. Her teachers include Robert Lipsett, Simon James, and Mateusz Wolski. 

The Violin

Yvette is playing on a 1737 “King Joseph” Guarneri del Gesù Model Violin 2020 made by Seattle-based violin maker Alina Kostina. See kostinaviolins.com