19 year old Canadian violist Emad Zolfaghari was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at age 16, where he currently studies with Hsin-Yun Huang. He is the first prize winner of the 2023 Irving M. Klein International String Competition, first prize winner of the International 2023 Morningside Music Bridge Competition, second prize winner of the 2022 Johansen International String Competition and third prize winner of the 2023 OSM String Competition.

His other awards include Grand Prize at the OMNI Music Competition, first prize at the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Competition, Guelph Symphony Orchestra Competition and Oakville Chamber Orchestra Competition, second prize at the Ronald Sachs International Music Competition and top and special prizes at the Shean Strings Competition. Emad has appeared as a soloist with several major symphony orchestras, including l’Orchestre Métropolitain under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Montreal Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic, the Oakville Chamber Orchestra and the National Metropolitan Philharmonic. His previous mentors include Theresa Rudolph, Caroline Coade and Shanda Lowery-Sachs.

Emad has attended the Morningside Music Bridge summer festival on full scholarship, the Center Stage Strings festival as a junior faculty member, the Perlman Music Program and Music from Angel Fire.