Originally from Whitestone, NY, Yuka Kadota is a graduate of Indiana University with a Bachelor of Music and Performer Diploma in Violin Performance and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. Her major teachers were Henryk Kowalski and Franco Gulli. She completed graduate studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden.

Ms. Kadota began her professional orchestral career at the age of 24 with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and held the title of associate concertmaster for six seasons. Yuka has been a featured soloist with that orchestra and during her tenure was also the second violinist of the Freimann Quartet, the Quartet in Residence of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

Ms. Kadota has given performances at the White House, the Vatican, and the UN General Assembly for such dignitaries as First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Pope John Paul II, and Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Gali. In addition to performing as a soloist with several orchestras in the New York area, she has been broadcast in Italy on the Vatican Radio and Chicago on WFMT, appeared on a televised broadcast of the BBC Proms with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and represented the MSO as a member of the Emmy Award winning All-Star Orchestra.

Since 2007, Ms. Kadota has performed regularly as an extra violinist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and joined them for the entire 2011.12 season. She has toured with the CSO throughout the United States and abroad, performing in many of the major concert halls of Europe with Music Directors Riccardo Muti and Bernard Haitink. She has also had the privilege of working with other esteemed conductors, including Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Though not a native Wisconsinite, Milwaukee truly feels like home and Yuka thoroughly enjoys the Milwaukee community and working with her wonderful MSO colleagues.