about
Praised for her electrifying and soulful energy, Annaliesa Place enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educational director. As a sought-after violinist, she immerses herself in collaborations with musicians and artists across many genres and has performed in the world’s leading concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, and Severance Hall. At age 12, she made her concerto debut with the Heidelberg Orchestra and has since appeared as a soloist with Jackson, Peabody, and North State Symphonies, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and Camerata Notturna. She appeared in the Cleveland Orchestra’s video project with Alan Gilbert and the Cleveland Plain Dealer hailed her ‘as the epitome of poise and intelligence.’
A passionate chamber musician, she has performed at many festivals including Encore, Sarasota, Yellowbarn, Music Academy of the West, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Holland Music Sessions, Verbier, Skaneateles, Laguna Beach, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Music for Montauk, Lake Champlain, Cooperstown, and Chamber Music Northwest. As a part of the National Symphony’s Beethoven Festival, she appeared at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. She has toured with Absolute Ensemble, and is featured on their album, Bach Re-invented for Sony Classical. Additional appearances include concerts with ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Jupiter Chamber Players, Ensemble ACJW, Metropolis Ensemble, and Classnotes.
She is a founding member of the conductor-less string orchestra ECCO, East Coast Chamber Orchestra. In the two-decade span of growing this musical family, she continues to be inspired by her incredible colleagues in this dynamic ensemble. They released an album featuring Tchaikovsky Serenade, Shostakovich String Quartet #8, and Michi Wiancko’s La Follia on EOne Records. Tours include repeat engagements at 92nd Street Y, The Town Hall, Music Mondays, Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Naumburg Summer Series, and the Kennedy Center.
Annaliesa’s musical life expanded to include collaborations with contemporary artists when she moved to New York City to study at The Juilliard School. She began performing and recording with jazz, pop, and rock musicians in many diverse venues. She has collaborated on projects with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West, Ariana Grande, Michael Bublé, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, the Roots, Herbie Hancock, J Cole, and David Foster. She has appeared on Saturday Night Live, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, the Tonight Show featuring Jimmy Fallon, MTV Video Music Awards, NBC Today Show, CBS Early Show, and Live Earth at Giant’s Stadium. Annaliesa has also recorded dozens of movie soundtracks including Joker, which won an Academy Award in 2020 for Best Musical Score. One of Annaliesa’s greatest joys is performing in Broadway shows. She previously held a chair in Beetlejuice and in March 2023 will open New York New York. Other shows she has performed on are Aladdin and Moulin Rouge.
Annaliesa is the Director of Strings at the Dwight-Englewood School, where she founded StringJam, a conductor-less string orchestra comprised of top pre-college musicians. She is the founder and co-director of String Society, a music camp for students ages 10-18. For half a decade, she developed the string program and was the lead teacher for Summer Arts with Juilliard, in Geneva, Switzerland. She has also taught at the Thurnauer School of Music and EMS Summer String Festival.
At age 3, Annaliesa began studying the violin and shortly after began studying the piano with the Suzuki Method. After studying with Vasile Beluska until age 13, she joined the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, as a student of David Russell and David Updegraff. She received her Bachelor of Music from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University with Victor Danchencko. She earned her Master of Music from the Juilliard School, studying with Robert Mann. Other mentors include Robert Lipsett, Leon Fleisher, Robert van Sice, Donald Weilerstein, Peter Salaff, and David Cerone. Annaliesa performs on a Peter Aznavoorian violin made in 2007. She lives in Piermont, NY, with her husband, cellist, and conductor, Diego Garcia, and their two daughters.