Paula Korak is a violinist and teacher originally from St. Louis. She grew up in a family of professional musicians and began her violin studies at the age of 3. As a child, she was surrounded by music and spent several years living in Germany as the family pursued their musical studies and careers. She played chamber music at an early age and as a student spent several summers studying and performing at Strings in the Mountains Festival in Colorado. She attended Calvin College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Missouri~Columbia.
As an orchestral violinist, she has played with many orchestras across the United States, in Spain and Norway. She has performed with esteemed groups such as the St. Louis Symphony and and the Santa Fe Opera. She has been a member of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia in Spain, the New Mexico Symphony, the Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, the MUNY Broadway Theater in St. Louis (Associate Concertmaster) and played with the Stavanger Symphony in Norway.
Throughout her career, she has taught, coached and mentored students of all ages and levels. She has taught Chamber Music at the Columbus School for Girls and is a substitute teacher there in strings and music. She is a frequent sectional coach for Regional, Youth and area high school orchestras. In her studio, she has students that have competed at local and national chamber competitions, solo competitions and students that have gone on to study at major conservatories. Others have enjoyed learning the basics of playing an instrument just for fun. Her teaching philosophy is that every child can learn music and has unlimited potential.
She is an Associate Violinist with the Columbus Symphony, Associated Faculty with the Chamber Music Connection in Worthington and runs a teaching studio of Violin and Viola students in Bexley.