Strings

Allison Tanaka

Violin II

Allison Tanaka is a violinist and music educator based in the Phoenix area, where she currently serves as an Elementary and Middle School Orchestra Director at three schools in the Paradise Valley Unified School District.

Teaching orchestra is one of Allison’s main passions in life, in large part due to the exceptional experiences and educational quality she received in the public schools in Brevard County, Florida. In an effort to reach even more students in her community, Allison founded and conducts the Paradise Valley Youth Symphony, a small, but growing youth orchestra dedicated to providing a highly engaging, high-quality orchestral education to students from all across PVUSD.

As an active orchestral musician, Allison has held positions in several orchestras throughout Arizona. In addition to her position in the TSO, her most notable appointment was with the Flagstaff Symphony, where she served as Principal 2nd Violin. In the Phoenix area, Allison was a member of the West Valley Symphony and Symphony of the Southwest. She is currently a regular substitute musician with the Phoenix Symphony, Arizona Opera, and AZPhil.

Allison holds a Master of Music in Violin Performance from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Music Education (Choral) and a Performance Certificate in Violin from The Florida State University. Her principal teachers have included Jonathan Swartz and Shannon Thomas.

When not performing or teaching, Allison enjoys hiking and traveling with her husband, Hayato Tanaka, TSO principal trumpet.