Violist Brett Walfish, Co-Founder and President of the Rushmore Music Festival, has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Ireland, Italy, and Israel. His concerts have taken him to Tel Aviv Opera House, the National Music Museum, the Historic Blackfriars Theatre and Carnegie Hall, among others. Praised by the conductor David Effron for a warm sound full of a “myriad of colors,” Brett is an expressive and charismatic performer. He has collaborated with world-renowned artists including Philip Setzer, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Stephan Barratt-Due, Annie Fullard, Michael Klotz, Rudolf Koelman, Misha Vitenson, and Hillel Zori. He has also performed with the highly acclaimed conductorless chamber orchestra, A Far Cry, as well as the New World Symphony.

Mr. Walfish is a devoted teacher of violin, viola, and chamber music, and has studied string pedagogy with the legendary Mimi Zweig at the Indiana University and completed a two-year long-term Suzuki teacher training certification at the School for Strings in New York City. He frequently travels across the United States for guest masterclasses and teaches privately through the Professional Violin Studio in Rapid City and Spearfish. Most recently, he has joined the Valencia Baryton Project on a multi-week U.S. & Canada tour.

His students have been accepted to the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Harvard University, Cornell University, among others.

Brett Walfish teaches in-person lessons in Rapid City and in Fort Lauderdale, FL, as well as virtually on Zoom.