Originally from San Diego, California, violinist Kimberly Durflinger is currently Principal 2nd Violin of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra in British Columbia, Canada. She also subs with several major North American orchestras, performs in the rock band Vaerisa, is a session musician with the company Musiversal, and teaches a select number of students privately. She lives in Victoria, BC with her Pembroke Welsh Corgi Maple. In her spare time, she can be found dancing Argentine Tango, baking pies, or catching shiny Pokémon.
An avid orchestral musician, Kimberly began playing professionally with the Thunder Bay Symphony from 2021-2023 as a tenured section violinist. After that, she joined the Victoria Symphony in 2023 as a tenured section violinist, and has continued to perform there. Additionally, she has subbed with many major North American orchestras such as the San Diego Symphony, National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, I Musici Orchestre Chambre de Montréal, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra.
Kimberly has a versatile skill set, due to her passion towards genres of music outside the realm of classical music. In 2025, she joined the roster of musicians at Musiversal – a company that connects session musicians with clients all around the world. Additionally, she is a member of the Toronto-based rock band Vaerisa, which was formed in 2018. Vaerisa has toured the east coast of Canada, and has taken part in festivals and events such as Toronto’s Indie Week, and been featured in Stencil Magazine UK. Vaerisa’s debut record ‘Heliograph‘ was released through Sony/BFD in 2022. Their newest album ‘The Reliquary’ was released in April 2023 in collaboration with The Hit House, an award-winning music composition group, scoring music for the likes of Disney, Marvel, and beyond. Through this collaboration, Vaerisa’s track “Throne” was licensed for use in the movie trailer for “Octopus with the Broken arms”, a Chinese crime movie released worldwide in 2025.
In addition to Vaerisa, Kimberly enjoys taking on projects from a variety of sources, including premieres of contemporary composers, performing live tango music to Argentine Tango dancers at a Tango festival, playing punk-rock music at the House of Blues in San Diego, and recording the theme song to the video game Renaine on the Nintendo Switch.
Classically trained, she graduated with a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in 2018 and a Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Performance from the Eastman School of Music in 2016. She has been coached and guided by wonderful musicians and people such as Andrew Wan, Jonathan Crow, Leah Roseman, Alexander Read, Lynn Blakeslee, Jing Yan Bowcott, Alexandra ‘Olga’ Keegan, and Morgan Wheeler.
Kimberly Durflinger 