Marina kifferstein

Violinist, composer, and educator Marina Kifferstein has been praised as “an ensemble unto herself” (I CARE IF YOU LISTEN). A chamber musician at heart with curiosity at the core of her artistic practice, she is a founding member of TAK Ensemble and The Rhythm Method string quartet, and performs with these groups and as a soloist across the U.S. and internationally. She also performs as a guest artist with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea, Wet Ink, and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, of which she was formerly concert master and featured soloist

A specialist in new and experimental music, Marina has performed and commissioned hundreds of works by living composers. A composer herself, her works have been performed across the U.S., South America, and Europe. Her albums with TAK, The Rhythm Method, and as a soloist have been received with critical acclaim. Her debut solo album, Open Improvisations (2020), a compilation of low-fi improvisations livestreamed during the pandemic, was described as “[showcasing] a broad vocabulary, tuneful and noisy and often both simultaneously” (Harmonic Series). In her recent solo album Strand Line (2026), featuring works by Liza Lim, Ashkan Behzadi, Luciano Berio, and improvisations by Kifferstein herself, “the violin is a conduit for visceral, outrageous sounds” (I CARE IF YOU LISTEN).

As a passionate advocate for arts education, Marina currently holds violin faculty positions at the United Nations International School, the Composers Conference, the Lake George Music Festival Composer’s Institute, and TAK LAB. She has held university residency positions at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Bowling Green State University, Tulane, McGill, New York University, Huddersfield, and the Zurich University of the Arts, among others, and with TAK Ensemble as Long-Term Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania.