Michael Hill International Violin Competition

1st Place - Natalia Lomeiko (Russia/New Zealand)

Congratulations to Natalia, for being appointed professor of the Royal College of Music!

Born into a family of musicians in Novosibirsk, Russia Natalia has already established herself internationally as a versatile performing artist. Having won numerous prizes in Tibor Varga, Tchaikovsky, Menuhin, Stradivari International Violin competitions; in the year 2000 she received the Gold Medal and the 1st Prize in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition (Genoa, Italy) and the 1st prize in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition (Auckland, New Zealand) in 2003.

Natalia studied at the Specialist Music School in Novosibirsk with Prof. A. Gvozdev, at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England with Lord Menuhin and Prof. N. Boyarskaya, at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music with Prof. Hu Kun and currently lives in London.

Since her debut with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra at the age of seven, Natalia performed as a soloist with many orchestras, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lord Menuhin, the Philharmonia, the Singapore Symphony, the New Zealand Symphony, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Christchurch Symphony, the Bilkent Symphony, the Tokyo Royal Philharmonic, the New European Strings, the Kronstadt Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, St.Petersburg Radio Symphony and the Nice Philharmonic among many others.

Natalia is often invited to perform solo and chamber music at various Festivals around Europe and Asia such as Paganiniana, The Tuscan Sun, Sansepolcro, Portogruaro, Evaristo Valle, Korsholm, Yerevan, Ako (Japan)and many others.

In 2001 Natalia recorded the Three Grieg Violin Sonatas with pianist Olga Sitkovetsky for the DYNAMIC label to a high critical acclaim. Since that her recital in Cremona on Paganini's violin was recorded on FONE and released in 2003. Her CD of French Sonatas with pianist Olga Sitkovetsky has been released on Trust Records in 2004; the Strad described it "... a stunning recital". Her latest CD with husband Yuri Zhislin will be realeased later this year on NAXOS.

Natalia has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in such prestigious venues in London as the Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Buckingham Palace, the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. She has performed chamber music with such distinguished musicians as Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, the late Boris Pergamenschikov, Tabea Zimmerman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Schlomo Mintz and many others. She has toured the Great Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Finland, Russia, Poland, Spain, the USA, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Singapore, Japan and New Zealand.

In the recent years Natalia has also been invited as a Guest Concertmaster of Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Virtuosi of Europe, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2011 Natalia was appointed as a Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London.

Visit Natalia's website at www.natalialomeiko.com.

2nd Place - Kristian Winther (Australia)

Born in Canberra in 1984, Kristian Winther studied violin with Josette Esquedin-Morgan, and conducting with John Curro, with whom he also made his concerto debut, performing the Sibelius violin concerto in 2000. As soloist he has appeared with the Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the Auckland Philharmonic, and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Kristian has also been Guest Assistant Concertmaster of the Adelaide and Western Australian symphony orchestras and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

From 2007–2008 Kristian was violinist with the Tinalley String Quartet, winning the 2007 Banff International String Quartet Competition. This was followed by critically acclaimed tours of the USA and Europe. Kristian is also a composer and premiered his work for string quartet …etude at the Sydney Opera House in 2008.

In 2009 Kristian gave the Australian premieres of Brett Dean's Violin Concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing and of Andriessen's string quartet Facing Death. 2009 also saw him conducting Gubaidulina's Seven Words for the Melbourne International Arts Festival in October and the Australian premiere of Andriessen's De Stijl during the Canberra International Music Festival. In 2010 Kristian will appear as leader of ACO2, and as soloist, conductor and leader of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. He will also perform the complete Bartok String Quartets with six different groups at the Australian National Academy of Music.

3rd Place - Korbinian Altenberger

Violinist Korbinian Altenberger is a winner of Astral Artistic Services' 2005 National Auditions and joined its artist roster that year. Astral has featured him on its concert series in both Philadelphia and New York, and recently presented him as concerto soloist with The Haddonfield Symphony (now Symphony in C) on its "Rising Stars" concert at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. His teacher, famed violinist Midori, joins him for his Philadelphia recital debut this season, also under Astral's auspices.

Mr. Altenberger began his post as concertmaster of Cologne's WDR Radio Symphony Orchestra in August 2007, under Semyon Bychkov. The Munich native has appeared as soloist in the U.S., Japan, South Africa, New Zealand, and throughout eastern and western Europe. The recipient of the special prize for the best interpretation of the commissioned piece in Munich's 2005 ARD Music Competition, he also received First Prize and the Audience Choice award from Munich's Jacob Stainer Violin Competition and First Prize from Italy's Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition, where he was also awarded a special prize for his performance of Bach. In addition, he has received prizes from New Zealand's International Michael Hill Competition, the Concertino Praga International Competition, and the Jugend Musiziert National Violin Competition, and was awarded both Third Prize and the Audience Prize at Switzerland's International Tibor Varga Competition.

Mr. Altenberger is an Artist-in-Residence at the State Orchestra of Eisenach, Germany, where he was soloist in twelve concerts during the orchestra's 2006-2007 season. At the age of 22 he also served as concertmaster of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons. He has appeared as soloist with the Auckland Philharmonia, Munich Philharmonic, Halle Philharmonic, Gttingen Symphony Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Kassel Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Bad Reichenall Philharmonic, and the New England Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. Recently, he gave solo performances in France, Austria, and Italy. A soloist at the Salzburger Festspiele and the Luzerne and Ticino Musica festivals, he has also appeared as soloist before the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Mr. Altenberger recently participated at the Marlboro Music Festival, and has also appeared at the Music at Menlo Festival and at the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute.

The winner of the New England Conservatory's Mozart Competition, Mr. Altenberger received both a graduate diploma and an Artist Diploma from NEC as a student of Donald Weilerstein. He enrolled at the University of Southern California in the fall of 2007, where he continues his studies with Midori. Mr. Altenberger recently recorded Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, for Germany's Bella Musica label. He plays a J.B. Guadagnini violin, on kind loan from Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

For more information, visit Astral Artistic Services.