Having grown up in Amman, Jordan and East Tennessee, violinist Lili Sarayrah believes in bringing people of diverse cultures and interests together. She returned to Jordan through the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship which, in conjunction with her experience teaching violin lessons to at-risk youth at the Joy of Music School and Enrico Fermi School No. 17, has inspired her to combine music and cross-cultural communication to promote social change. To do so she will complete a tuition-free fifth year at the University of Rochester through the Kauffman Entrepreneurial Year Program to begin a project on working with refugees through music.
Ms. Sarayrah is a student of Charles Castleman and will graduate from the Eastman School of Music in 2015 with a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance, an Arts Leadership Program Certificate with funded internships at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC and Ensemble Signal, a Literary Translation Certificate (from Arabic to English), and completion of the Kauffman Entrepreneurial Year Program.