Sha Katsouris (violin) was born in Hunan, China. She began studying the violin at the age of four with her mother, a violin professor at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music. At the age of ten, she became the youngest winner of China’s National Violin Competition and started studying with Prof. Lin Yaoji from the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. At the age of 15, she won the International Menuhin Competition in England.

Later, she received a full scholarship from the Starling Foundation and went to the USA to study with Prof. Kurt Sassmannshaus and Ms. Dorothy Delay at the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) in Cincinnati where she also had the opportunity to receive chamber music lessons from the LaSalle String Quartet and the Tokyo String Quartet. As a winner of CCM Concerto Competition, she regularly performed as a soloist with the CCM Concert Orchestra and the CCM Philharmonic Orchestra. Her performance of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 “delivered a big-boned interpretation”, showcasing her poise, fabulous technique, lyricism and expression (Cincinnati Enquirer).

From 1992 to 1994, as a full-scholarship recipient, she attended the Aspen Music Festival where she presented solo and chamber music recitals in the Starling Music Series. In 1996, she recorded the world premiere recording of Giovanni Giornovichi’s Violin Concerto No. 10 with the Starling Chamber Orchestra for Arte Nova. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in 1997, she pursued further studies at the Yale School of Music (Yale University), studying with Peter Oundjian, the former first violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet, and continued to receive regular chamber music coaching from the Tokyo String Quartet.

In 1998, Sha Katsouris began her studies with Prof. Nicolas Chumachenco at the Freiburg University of Music before joining the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. Since January 2000, she has been a member of the Hába Quartet, with whom she has toured China and performed concerts in Beijing Modern Music Festival, Shanghai Spring International Festival, in Shenzhen and Guangzhou in 2014. In 2015, they were invited to perform at the Warsaw music festival Szalone Dni Muzyki (La Folle Journée), and in 2016, they participated in the Pärnu Music Festival. Sha Katsouris has done numerous CD recordings with the Hába Quartet, including the complete string quartets by Alois Hába (Neos Music), Brahms’ Piano Quintet (Oehms Classics), Dvořák’s Piano Quintet and Glinka’s Grand Sextet, scheduled for release by Hänssler Classic in 2024.