Caroline Pliszka

Caroline Pliszka joined the Conservatory in 2021 and is an instructor of violin. She has been a regular substitute player with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra since 2002. In addition to teaching at the Conservatory, Pliszka has been a member of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute violin faculty since 2010. She holds a Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music, cum laude, from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. She has served as concertmaster of the Houston Ballet Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the New England Conservatory Orchestras, and the Shepherd School of Music Chamber Orchestra.  

Pliszka was the recipient of a Tanglewood Music Center (TMC) fellowship from 1999 to 2001, and was awarded the Henri Kohn Memorial Award in 2001. She also spent two summers as a New Fromm Player, an ensemble of young musicians drawn from recent TMC alumni who have distinguished themselves in the performance of new music. An active chamber musician, Pliszka has collaborated with Dawn Upshaw, Paul Katz, and Miriam Fried, and was a member of the New England Conservatory Honors String Quartet. Her principal teachers include retired BSO concertmaster Malcolm Lowe, Kenneth Goldsmith, Raphael Fliegel, and Fredell Lack. Pliszka is originally from Spring, Texas.