The Juilliard School, Master of Music
The Juilliard School, Bachelor of Music

Manhattan School of Music, Doctoral of Musical Arts

Based in New York City, Chinese violinist Qianru Elaine He has participated at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, DeLay-Starling Violin Symposium, Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, PMP Suncoast, IMS Prussia Cove in England, Tanglewood Music Festival, and Morningside Music Bridge. In the festivals, she studied chamber music and violin performance with renowned musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Donald Weilerstein, Merry Peckham, the Juilliard String Quartet, Noah Bendix-Balgley and so on.

Her recent honors include 1st Prize at the 2023 Naftzger Prize Audition, and 2nd Prize at the 2023 Hellam Young Artists Competition where she also received the Stephen and Linda Paganini-Brite Award. She was also prize winners at the Ann & Charles Eisemann International Competition, Pearl & Julius Young Artists Competition, and the Doublestop Foundation Instrument Loan Competition.

As an aspiring orchestral and chamber music violinist, she served as concertmaster of the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra and the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, as well as in other leadership positions in orchestras under the batons of Maestros Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons, and Daniele Gatti.

In 2024, she joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as a member of the First Violin section. In 2026, she returned to New York and resumed performing with the New York Philharmonic as a substitute violinist. She has also performed with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and the United Nations Chamber Music Society, and has toured with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In addition, she performs with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra as a guest Principal Second Violin.

Elaine holds both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied under Catherine Cho and Lewis Kaplan, and is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Manhattan School of Music.