Violinist Julia Sakharova’s career has spanned 25 years, four continents, and numerous performances as a soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, and orchestral performer. Following her solo orchestral debut with the Moldova Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eight, her early career included several concert tours on behalf of the Vladimir Spivakov Charity Foundation and solo performances with various orchestras throughout the former Soviet Union and United States.

In 1999, after graduating from Moscow’s prestigious Central Special Music School under the renowned Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Ms. Sakharova moved to the U.S. to continue her education at Oberlin College, studying with Taras Gabora, Almita Vamos and Milan Vitek. A year later she made her West Coast solo debut at the Getty Center with composer and conductor John Williams and the Oberlin Orchestra. She was a founding member of the acclaimed Erato String Quartet, which won the first prize of the 2001 Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition and gave numerous performances, most memorably at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

While earning a master’s degree from the Juilliard School studying with Donald Weilerstein,  she made her New York City orchestral debut under the baton of Maestro Mark Stringer and the Juilliard Orchestra, as well as her chamber music debut at New York’s Alice Tully Hall. Recitals at Steinway Hall, Carnegie Hall, and other venues followed, as well as her South American solo debut with the Caracas Philharmonic Orchestra in Venezuela.

Subsequently, she received a certificate for orchestral performance from the Manhattan School of Music studying with Glenn Dicterow and Lisa Kim of the New York Philharmonic. Her busy schedule has included tours, festivals, and competitions throughout her native Russia, Western and Southern Europe, Japan, Venezuela, and the United States. Most recently she has  appeared with the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto
and conducted master classes for students at  the University of Iowa School of Music.

Ms. Sakharova has participated in the recording of Rachmaninoff's Elegiaque Piano Trios on the Tavros Records label, and has also been recorded with other artists on Naxos Records’ release of works by the New York-based composer Sean Hickey, who dedicated Ampersand , a work for violin and piano, to Ms. Sakharova, which she debuted at a Steinway Hall recital. A variety of her other performances have also been featured in radio broadcasts on WQXR's “Young Artists Showcase,” KMZT's “Sundays Live” as well as on Cleveland's WCLV.

Her competition credits include first prize at the International Competition for the Music of Eastern & Central Europe, Top Prize at the Olga Koussevitzky Competition for Strings, and a top prize at the Jeunesses Musicales Montreal International Competition. Ms. Sakharova has also appeared at such festivals as the Music Academy of the West, Festival International de Colmar, the Verbier Festival & Academy, Keshet Eilon Violin Mastercourse, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and Bowdoin International Music Festival.

As of 2011 she is a newly appointed Concertmaster of the Tupelo Symphony Orchestra.