American violinist Daniel Rafimayeri is the 2025 Laureate of the Washington International Strings Competition and winner of its Overall Audience Prize. He is also the 2019 Burdick-Thorne Gold Medalist of the Stulberg International String Competition, where he additionally received the award for Best Performance of Bach.

Highlights of his recent solo engagements include performances of Bruch’s Concerto with The Baltimore Chamber Symphony, The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and The York Symphony Orchestra. At Juilliard, Daniel was selected to perform solo Bach with the 2023 Spring Dances and, most recently in 2025, the solo violin part in Jessie Montgomery’s new composition Concerto Grosso. He was awarded the 2023 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, is a featured artist with the French Consulate in New York City, and has appeared on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, SummerStage, Miller Auditorium, the Kosciuszko Foundation, Harris Concert Hall at the Aspen Music Festival, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A dedicated chamber musician, Daniel has performed in multiple showcases with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and his pre-college chamber group won the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Competition. He has participated in the Wu Han/David Finckel Chamber Program at the Aspen Music Festival, the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Young Artists Program in Ottawa, Keshet Eilon Music Center, Music Academy of the West, and Greenwood Chamber Music Camp in Massachusetts.

Of French-Iranian heritage, Daniel was born and raised in New York City, where he attended Hunter College Elementary and High School and the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Program. An alum of NPR’s From the Top, he won the NYYS Concerto Competition and appeared as soloist with the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonic. He holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Violin Performance from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Catherine Cho, Li Lin, and Ronald Copes. He is currently pursuing further studies at the Yale School of Music with Tai Murray. His previous teachers also include Patinka Kopec, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Si-Jing Huang, and Paul Biss.