Ako Kojian has been a member of the violin section of Pacific Symphony since 2000. She has performed with the Los Angeles Opera, the Santa Barbara Symphony and Opera Pacific. She is originally from Japan, she earned her Bachelor of Music degree at the Toho School of Music in Tokyo. She received her master’s degree and Graduate Diploma from New England Conservatory studying with Michele Auclair. Before joining Pacific Symphony, she was a fellow at the New World Symphony from 1997-1999. She has participated in music festivals such as Pacific Music Festival, Breckenridge Music Festival and The International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum. Ako also performed in the masterclasses of Ruggiero Ricci, Igor Ozim, Victor Tretiakov and Alexander Arenkov. She was the first prize winner of the International Chamber Music Festival Austria “Allegro Vivo”, also received the Austrian Radio Prize in 1995. She is married to Miran Kojian, a former concertmaster of the National Symphony and have a daughter Lily, born in 2010 who is studying the violin.