Diane Persin Economakis

Diane Economakis is in her eleventh season as South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestras Executive Director.  She also serves as Teaching Professor in English and Director of First-Year Writing at Indiana University-South Bend, where she has taught since 2006.

A native of Greensburg, PA, Diane grew up in a musical family. She began to study violin at the age of 3 and, along with her violist sister and cellist brother, formed a family string trio that played for church and community events.  Diane served as Concertmaster of the Westmoreland Youth Symphony Orchestra and as first violinist in the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony and Chautauqua Youth Orchestra. For twenty summers, she served as Administrator of the Chautauqua Institution Music Festival in Chautauqua, New York.  Diane graduated from Penn State University’s Schreyer Honors College in 2002 with three honors degrees: B.A. in English, B.S. in Secondary English Education, and B.M.A. in Music/Violin Performance.  While at Penn State, she performed as a member of the Nittany Valley Symphony, Pennsylvania Center Chamber Orchestra, and Penn State Opera Orchestra.  She earned an M.A. in English in 2005 from the University of Notre Dame, where she also served as Graduate Student Assistant Director of the University Writing Program.  Diane played violin in the LaPorte Symphony from 2002 to 2009.  She and her husband Richard, Professor of Architecture at Notre Dame, have a fifteen-year old daughter who is an SBYSO violinist.

Her orchestral experience as a violinist includes the Nittany Valley Symphony, Pennsylvania Center Chamber Orchestra, Altoona Symphony, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, LaPorte County Symphony Orchestra, and University of Notre Dame Chamber Orchestra.  Her youth orchestra ensembles include the Chautauqua Youth Orchestra, Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Westmoreland Youth Symphony Orchestras.  She and her husband, Richard, have a fifteen-year-old daughter who is also a violinist and pianist.

To contact Diane, email sbyso@sbyso.org or call (574) 302-5900.