Violinist Staff Sergeant Sara Matayoshi of Richmond, Ill., joined “The President’s Own” United States Marine Chamber Orchestra in June 2018.

Staff Sgt. Matayoshi began her musical instruction at age 6. Upon attending Richmond-Burton Community High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree in music in 2007 from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where she studied with Gerardo Ribeiro. In 2011, she earned her master’s degree in violin performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Mass., where she studied with Laura Bossert. Staff Sgt. Matayoshi has also studied with the late Vartan Manoogian, former concertmaster of L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland, and teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Prior to joining “The President’s Own,” Staff Sgt. Matayoshi performed as a core violinist in the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in Tennessee from 2011-16 and as principal second violin with the National Philharmonic in North Bethesda, Md., from 2017-18. She has also performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Des Moines Metro Opera in Iowa, the Madison Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin, and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. In addition, Staff Sgt. Matayoshi was the violinist of the Iris Piano Trio, a trio in residence at Charles E. Smith Life Communities in Rockville, Md.

With the orchestra, Staff Sgt. Matayoshi performs regularly at White House State Dinners, receptions, and other functions and appears with the Marine Chamber Orchestra in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.