Canadian violinist Katya Poplyansky is a prizewinner at numerous competitions including the Isabel Bader, Tunbridge Wells and Eckhardt-Gramatté competitions, where she was awarded the prize for the best performance of the commissioned work, Carmen Braden's Foxy Fox's Musical Games. An accomplished chamber musician, she has been invited to participate in North American and European festivals, including the Toronto Summer Music Festival, IMS Prussia Cove (UK), Festival Jong Talent Schiermonnikoog (Netherlands), Hvide Sande Masterclass (Denmark), and the Smithsonian Haydn Quartet Academy (USA). She has also collaborated with Amici Chamber Ensemble and the ARC Ensemble. She is currently serving as first violin of the Isabel Quartet at Queen's University as well as concertmaster of the Kingston Symphony Orchestra. In July 2024, she was named co-concertmaster of Les Violons du Roy in Québec City. Thanks to the generosity of Canimex Inc., from Drummondville (Quebec), Canada, she performs on a Giuseppe Guarneri "del Gesù" violin, Cremona, ca. 1726-29, "Schroetter", a Sartory bow, and a Dipper baroque bow.

Katya is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Guildhall School and the Royal Conservatory's Glenn Gould School, where she was also a Rebanks Fellow. Her teachers include Paul Kantor, Barry Shiffman, David Takeno, Ida Kavafian, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Oleg Pokhanovski, Atis Bankas, Victor Danchenko, Inga Granovskaya and Joseph Silverstein. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Toronto, studying with Jonathan Crow.