About
Violinist Atticus Margulis-Ohnuma is building a career at the intersection of performance and creative work, primarily interested in how musical environments shape attention and emotional experience.
Atticus is currently pursuing his Master of Music degree at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, studying with Jinjoo Cho. Before moving to Chicago, he studied with Wendy Sharp at Yale University, where he completed degrees in both music and psychology. His academic work on attention, memory, and perception continues to inform his artistic practice, particularly in his interest in immersive concert formats and the psychology of listening.
He has performed in venues across North America, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Woolsey Hall, Kodak Hall, Studzinski Hall, and the Teatro del Bicentenario in León, Mexico. At Yale, he served as president and principal second violin of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, placing in the semi-finals of the William Waite Concerto Competition. In his undergraduate years, he worked with numerous ensembles across campus—including the Opera Theater of Yale College, the Yale Undergraduate Chamber Orchestra, the Dramatic Association, and the Institute of Sacred Music. Previously, he recorded with the New York Youth Symphony on the album that won the 2023 GRAMMY Award for Best Orchestral Performance.
A dedicated chamber musician, Atticus spent four years as the first violinist of an active Yale-based string quartet and organized a house-concert series that brought chamber music into residential colleges and community venues throughout New Haven. He has played in masterclasses for Hilary Hahn, Joel Smirnoff, Ronald Copes, Daniel Phillips, Rachel Barton Pine, the Shanghai Quartet, and Pacifica Quartet, among others.
Working both in classical and new music, Atticus has closely collaborated with and performed the music of Michael Abels, Reena Esmail, Martin Bresnick, Remy Le Boeuf, and Rodney Lister, and works closely with emerging composers across the country. He also independently composes music with an interest in texture, resonance, and electronic or mixed-media environments.
His recent award-winning project SOLACE (2025) reflects this creative direction: an immersive circular performance combining choir, solo violin, electronics, and spatial audio held in a resonant church. Built around themes of isolation, community, and transformation, the work combines Bach, original compositions, extended vocal techniques, and unique staging to create a new kind of concert experience centered on attention, connection, and collective presence. SOLACE remains a foundation for his ongoing exploration in concert and performance design.
Atticus has attended summer programs and festivals such as Greenwood Music Camp (as both camper and counselor), Bowdoin International Music Festival, Madeline Island Chamber Music, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, the Maine Chamber Music Seminar, and he was a 2025 fellow in Kinhaven’s Young Artist Program. His studies at Bienen are made possible through the support of the Eckstein Music Scholarship.
Atticus plays a violin made in Berlin by Michael Dötsch in 1924.
