Christian Gonzales is one of San Diego's finest young violinists. A graduate of the Juilliard School and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Christian has performed throughout the United States as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. He is also the owner of the Christian Gonzales Violin Studio which aims to provide high quality violin instruction in San Diego.

Named the winner of the 2022 Atwater Kent Concerto Competition, Christian was briefly loaned the 1732 Duke of Alcantara Stradivarius.  He was also a finalist in the 2025 Agustín Aponte International Music Competition and performed for the Tenerife Music Festival in Spain. Christian is a prizewinner in the Charleston International, Max Bruch International, Birmingham International, New York Classical, Musical Merit, La Jolla Young Artists, La Jolla Emerging Artists, and the Grossmont MSC competitions. He has been awarded several scholarships from organizations including the Musical Merit and the Presser Scholar foundations.

Christian has appeared as a soloist with orchestras throughout Southern California including the UCLA Symphony and International Youth Symphony. He has performed throughout the United States as a recitalist for venues such as the Da Camera Society, La Jolla Music Society, Tanglewood Music Festival, and Juilliard ChamberFest. International debuts in 2025 will be at Domaine Forget (Canada) and the Festival del Lago (Mexico). A supporter of new music, Christian has publicly performed solo works several times by composers such as Gabriela Lena Frank and Behzad Ranjbaran. Christian has also performed his original compositions and arrangements in recitals such as cadenzas for the Beethoven and Mozart 5 violin concerti.

As an orchestral musician, Christian was a concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and the UCLA Philharmonia, and associate concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra. He has performed in side-by-sides with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the San Diego Symphony, and has played professionally with many groups including the New World Symphony.

As a teacher, Christian's students have included members of community orchestras, youth orchestras, freelance performers, and school music directors. He has given masterclasses across Southern California for various youth orchestras and schools. Christian studied pedagogy at Juilliard and is developing books for violin study.

A native of El Cajon, California, Christian started the violin in fifth grade. His teachers were Areta Zhulla, Movses Pogossian, Varty Manouelian, Alexander Palamidis, Travis Maril, and Shirley Stafford. Chamber coaches have included Merry Peckham, Norman Fischer, Tai Murray, and members of the Emerson, Takács, Formosa, and Orion quartets among others.

Outside of music, Christian is a retired competitive wushu practitioner. He was a two-time member of the USA Traditional Wushu Team, and an assistant coach and co-president of UCLA Wushu. He competed in the 6th World Traditional Wushu Championships.