Iranian violinist Ava Shadmani is an internationally active chamber musician and currently serves as the Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, where she resides. Born and raised in Tehran, she moved to North America to further her musical career, earning her Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2021, Ava received the David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Award for a Woman in the Arts for her research project Unheard Voices of Iran, which celebrates Iranian folk-inspired compositions and fosters cross-cultural understanding. The project’s debut album, I Will Greet the Sun Again, was released in August 2024 and is available on all streaming platforms.