Violinist/Violist Lena Vidulich is an adventurous and multi-faceted performer based in Chicago. She is able to move fluidly between the worlds of orchestral music, rock, pop, improvisation, musical theater, and contemporary music. Lena has a particular interest in alternate tuning systems, theatricality and physicality in performance, and multiphonic techniques. A committed advocate of new music who has performed nearly 100 world premieres, Lena has worked with composers including Zosha Di Castri, Nina C. Young, Reiko Füting, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others. 

Lena is the violist of earspace, a Raleigh-based ensemble creating multi-sensory performances. She was the founding violist of Quartet121, a string quartet hailed as “slashingly relevant” and a “magnet for world premieres” by New York Music Daily. Lena was also a founding member of Amalgama Ensemble, a septet dedicated to the synthesis of improvisation and notated contemporary classical music. She regularly performs with groups such as Ensemble Dal Niente, Talea Ensemble, and the Louis Moreau Institute for New Music. Interested in the study of early music, Lena also plays baroque violin with the New York Continuo Collective. As an orchestral musician, Lena has performed in the Chicago Composers Orchestra, Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra. She has also participated in festivals such as Banff’s Evolution of the String Quartet, Bang on a Can, the Meadowmount School of Music, the Orford Festival Academy, and the Northwestern Summer Violin Institute. Lena frequently performs with pop artists such as Japanese Breakfast and Whitney, including sold-out shows at Brooklyn Steel and Central Park Summer Stage as well as video collaborations with Madewell. She also performs in musical theater, including The Jury (Theatre Now NY), Single Rider (Off-Broadway), and the New York Musical Festival run and demo recordings of Generation Me. She has worked with such esteemed conductors as Riccardo Muti, Heinz Holliger, Alan Pierson, Jeffrey Milarsky, and Matthias Pintscher; and has performed in concerts across the U.S. and internationally in venues such as the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), National Sawdust (New York), and Orchestra Hall (Chicago). Lena has played in solo and chamber master classes for Grigory Kalinovsky, JACK Quartet, Fred Sherry, Paul Kantor, Cyrus Forough, Mauricio Fuks, William Van der Sloot, Blair Milton, Vadim Gluzman, and the Pacifica Quartet. 

Lena holds a Bachelor of Music in performance with a minor in French from Northwestern University, where she studied violin with Gerardo Ribeiro and chamber music with the Dover Quartet, Desirée Ruhstrat, and Mathias Tacke. She graduated summa cum laude from the Bienen School as a recipient of the Undergraduate Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. Her undergraduate education also included studies with Alexis Galpérine at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris and Université de Paris 8 – Vincennes-St Denis. Lena received her master’s degree in contemporary performance at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied violin with Curtis Macomber and chamber music with Margaret Kampmeier, Fred Sherry, and Lucy Shelton. She is a violin instructor at the Lycée Français, conducts string orchestra at the Peoples Music School, and maintains a private teaching studio in Chicago.

Lena is also an AmSAT-certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, teaching privately and serving as Associate Faculty at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She trained at the Riverside Initiative for the Alexander Technique, studying with second-generation teachers Nanette Walsh, Caren Bayer, and Lori Schiff.