As a music student Ms. Hisami Iijima Dillard learned the violin with the Suzuki Method in Japan from age 3. From that early start she has gone on to completed her undergraduate degree in Violin performance at the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston studying under the renowned violinist James Buswell. Studying under Elmar Oliveira, Ms. Hisami completed her Master of Fine Arts in Violin Performance from State University of New York Purchase College Conservatory, where she was awarded the Eugene and Emily Grant Music Scholarship. She went on to pursue Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, where she was awarded a fellowship to study with Arnold Steinhardt, the first violinist of the legendary Guarneri Quartet.
As a professional musician Ms. Hisami has performed as both a soloist and as an orchestra performer. After winning the prestigious Artist International Audition, Ms. Iijima gave a debut recital at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York. She was also featured as a soloist in a presentation of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago at the Spoleto Festival USA. As an orchestra musician, she had won various orchestra positions while she was still in school. She has been a tenured member of the Louisiana Philharmonic, Tucson Symphony, and Harrisburg Symphony. She has also served as Concertmaster with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Chautauqua Institution Festival Orchestra and the Mesa Symphony. Her orchestral engagements have taken her throughout Europe and North America. Currently she is a tenured member of Arizona Opera Orchestra and frequently performs with Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. In 2019 she has been appointed as Associate Concertmaster of the West Valley Symphony.
As an educator she has over 20 years of administering private instruction in violin as well as being a faculty member at some of the nation’s leading music schools. Ms. Hisami has held teaching positions at the Long Island Conservatory in NY, Florentine Music Center in NYC, Louisiana Academy of Performing Arts, and most recently at the Arizona School for the Arts in Phoenix. She was a violin instructor for the One Nation Program, a unique musical partnership between the Phoenix Symphony and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community through a year long residency program that offered private and group music lessons and performances at the community’s elementary and high school. Currently she is a coach for high school orchestra students in Paradise Valley School district, an outreach program through Paradise Valley Community College.
As a Suzuki teacher, she has taught at the Greater New Orleans Suzuki Music Camp and Fall Suzuki workshop by the Arizona Suzuki Association. She has been producing students who have won the concertmaster and principal chairs in the Phoenix Youth Symphony, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, West Valley Youth Symphony, as well as All-State and Regional Orchestras. Her Suzuki training has included courses with Mark Bjork, Lorraine Fink, Linda Fiore, Michelle Higa George, Mary Cay Neal, and Doris Preucil.
Ms. Hisami has been a member of the American String Teachers Association, Suzuki Association of the Americas and Arizona Suzuki Association. She had served on the board for the Arizona Suzuki Association.