Charissa Leung, 26 year-old violinist from San Jose, CA, is one Nashville Symphony’s newest members, joining the ensemble’s 2nd violin section in the 2022-23 season. She has most recently performed at the Manchester Music Festival in 2021, received the String Quartet Fellowship at Madeline Island Chamber Music in the summers of 2018 and 2019, attended the Aspen Music Festival from 2013-2016, and made her solo debut with the Prometheus Symphony as the winner of the Khuner Concerto Competition in 2015. Charissa was featured at the Rome Chamber Music Festival in 2017 and 2018, and is a frequent guest artist at Hawaii Chamber Music Festival and Nashville Chamber Music Society. 

Having been inspired by so many great pedagogues, Charissa is passionate about teaching, whether it be giving group lessons at the elementary school in which she grew up, teaching underprivileged aspiring violinists online through a non-profit organization called Through the Staff, or more recently, maintaining a small studio of Yale undergraduates. Charissa began her violin studies at age 3 with the Suzuki method, and graduated from the McDuffie Center for Strings where she double majored in Violin Performance and French as a recipient of a four-year Presidential scholarship. In 2021, she obtained her Master of Music degree under the tutelage of Syoko Aki and Tai Murray at Yale University. Charissa loves hiking, baking focaccia, and admiring cats from afar.