A graduate with the highest honors from the Conservatory of Fine Arts in Tirana, award-winning Albanian-American violinist Brunilda Myftaraj is currently conccertmaster of the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, the Connecticut Lyric Opera, and the International Greve Opera Academy in Italy. She is also the director of the Virtuosi Music Academy and the Summer Music Institute in Farmington, Connecticut, where she also teaches violin and chamber music. A student of, among others, Piero Faulli of the Quartetto Italiano, Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet, and famed violinist Rafael Druian, Myftaraj has performed as soloist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Farmington Valley Orchestra, and on several occasions with The Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Brunilda has presented recitals at the Piano and Friends Chamber Music series in Tucson, Arizona, Mostly Mozart series in Napa Valley, the Schubert Club in Minneapolis, Performers of Westchester, and many other venues. She also performed concerts and recitals in Italy, Poland, and Israel. In 2013, Brunilda Myftaraj recorded an album for Virtuosi Records title “Naked Violin,” containing a program of works for unaccompanied violin by Bach, Ysaÿe, and Prokofiev; and at the time of this interview in late May, 2016, Brunilda is putting the finishing touches on a new album, titled “The American Pie,” to be released soon. That album will contain works by Ives, Gershwin, Bernstein, Amy Beach, and Paul Schoenfield.