Negar Afazel

Negar Dena Afazel is a violinist, teaching artist, and advocate for social change. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University (2024). She is the recipient of prestigious honors, including the Presser Music Award, the Arkady Fomin Scholarship, and the Peabody Artistic Excellence Award.

Negar has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician across the United States, Europe, and West Asia. She has appeared at numerous festivals, including the Sounds of the Zoo, Ad Astra Music Festival, Montecito Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest, SPLICE Festival, and Orfeo Music Festival. A former Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra Artist Scholar (2017–2019), she was named a winner of the 2019 Irving S. Gilmore School of Music Concerto Competition for her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Op. 35. Her versatility spans intimate collaborations with local jazz artists in community spaces to multidisciplinary projects with vocalists and choirs, including the Celebris Ensemble.

As a dedicated educator with a decade of experience, Negar is the founder and director of the Kalamazoo Violin Choir—an ensemble dedicated to community engagement, cultural

awareness, and performance excellence through the integration of storytelling and visual art.

Committed to music as a catalyst for social impact and creative dialogue, Negar commissioned and premiered Woman, Life, Freedom (2024), a multidisciplinary work for solo violin and choir rooted in Persian poetry and contemporary Iranian social movements. In 2026, she curated and premiered A Conversation Through Us, an innovative violin-and-voice program fused with original narration that explores the feminine experience throughout human history, presented as a dynamic series of concert performances.

Beyond the concert stage, Negar enjoys long-distance running, Pilates, crafting, baking, and

reading.

🌐 www.negardenaafazel.com | 📷 Instagram: kalamazooviolinchoir