1st Place - Natalia Lomeiko (Russia/New Zealand)
Born into a family of musicians in Novosibirsk, Russia in 1979, Natalia Lomeiko has already established herself internationally as a regular performing artist. She has won prizes in the Menuhin International Violin Competition in 1993 and 1995, the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in 1997, the Antonio Stradivari International Violin Competition in 1998 and the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in 1998. She won the Gisborne Music Competition in 1999, the 2000 Young Musician of the Year Competition (New Zealand), and received the Gold Medal and the First Prize in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition in the same year. In 2003 Lomeiko won the First Prize in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition.
Lomeiko studied at the Specialist Music School in Novosibirsk with Professor A. Gvozdev, at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England with Lord Menuhin and Professor N. Boyarskaya, at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music with Professor Hu Kun. Since her debut with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra at the age of seven, Lomeiko has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lord Menuhin, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Royal Philharmonic and the Nice Philharmonic. In 2001 she recorded the three violin sonatas of Edvard Greig with pianist Olga Sitkovetsky.
Natalia Lomeiko 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, Buckingham Palace, the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. She has toured Great Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Finland, Russia, Poland, USA, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Japan and New Zealand.
This year Natalia Lomeiko is releasing her first CD and DVD with her husband Yuri Zhsilin.
Following their successful joint Wigmore Hall Concert in London in summer 2009 they are invited to perform this year with the Queensland Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, New European Strings, Okayama Chamber Orchestra among others. Their own chamber group "Russian Virtuosi of Europe" is about to tour the South America again in May.
Natalia is also organising and playing in her first Chamber Music Festival held at the Princess Alexandra Hall in London 3/4/5/ September, themed as "Schumann and more" with such inernationally acclaimed musicians as Nicolas Baldeyrou, David Cohen, Ivan Martin, Yuri Zhislin and Alexander Sitkovetsky.
Natalia is launching her website: www.natalialomeiko.com in spring this year.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.
