Violinist Bella Hristova won First Prize in the 2008-09 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, where she was also awarded the Rhoda Walker Teagle Prize, which sponsors her New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series at Merkin Hall, the Miriam Brody Aronson Award, the Ruth Laredo Memorial Award, the Candlelight Concert Society Concert Prize, and the Lied Center of Kansas Concert Prize.
Ms. Hristova will also makes her debut in the Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia, and the University of Florida, appears at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Cartagena Festival Internacional de Musica. She appears as soloist with orchestras with the Owensboro (KY), Johnstown (PA), DuPage (IL), and Indianapolis symphonies. Also during the 2009-10 season, Ms. Hristova performs Bach’s Concerto for Three Violins with the celebrated violinists Cho-Liang Lin and Kyoko Takezawa, as guest artist with the New York String Orchestra conducted by Jaime Laredo, and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with Indiana University’s Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor David Effron, as winner of their 2009 Concerto Competition.
As Winner of First Prize in the 2007 Michael Hill International Competition in New Zealand, Ms. Hristova made a critically acclaimed concert tour of the country and recorded a CD of solo violin works by the Belgian virtuoso Charles de Bériot for the Naxos label. She was awarded a career grant from the Salon de Virtuosi in New York and performs as a new member of Chamber Music Society Two at Lincoln Center this season.
Ms. Hristova has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio. Other festival appearances include The Grand Teton Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Music from Angel Fire, and the Marlboro Music Festival.
Born in Pleven, Bulgaria in 1985, Ms. Hristova began violin studies at the age of six. At 12, she participated in master classes with Ruggiero Ricci at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Since the age of 13, she has lived in the United States, working with Stephen Shipps. In 2003, Ms. Hristova entered The Curtis Institute, where she worked with Ida Kavafian (YCA Alumna) and studied chamber music with Steven Tenenbom. She is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University. Ms. Hristova plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner.
LEARN MORE ABOUT BELLA HRISTOVA.
2nd Place - Yuuki Wong (Dominica)
Winner of the Merit Prize for the Best Performance of the New Zealand composition.
Quoted by The Strad as an artist ‘with imagination and insight….a crowd-pleaser’, Yuuki Wong began his musical studies at the age of four with the piano and two years later, started playing the violin. After just three years of violin lessons, Yuuki was admitted to the world renowned Yehudi Menuhin School in England, where he studied with Rosemary Furniss and Natasha Boyarsky alongside lessons with Yehudi Menuhin. He was the youngest student at the age of 15 to be admitted to the class of Amita and Roland Vamos at the Oberlin Conservatory, USA to begin his Bachelor of Music degree. Since 2000, Yuuki has been studying at the Konservatorium Wien under Prof. Boris Kuschnir. Besides regular lessons, Yuuki has participated in lessons and masterclasses with personalities such as Tibor Varga, Aaron Rosand, Zakhar Bron, Frans Helmerson, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Viktor Tretyakov, Zvi Zeitlin, Pierre Amoyal, Julian Rachlin, Mauricio Fuks, Pamela Frank, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Yakov Kreizberg, Miriam Fried, to mention a few.
Honours bestowed upon Yuuki include 1st Prize at the 2007 Summit Music Festival Competition in New York, 2nd Prize and Special Prize at the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, Special Prize and 4th Place at the 2005 Jean Sibelius International Violin Competition in Helsinki, 3rd Prize at the 2004 Abbado International Violin Competition in Milan, the Grand Prix at the 2000 Kingsville International Competition, where he also swept the 1st Prize in the Senior Strings and Best Violinist Prize. While at Oberlin Conservatory, he was a recipient of the Dean’s Talent Award, which recognizes exceptional talent at the institution. At the Konservatorium Wien, he has won the Fidelio Competition in 2005.
Recital, concerto and chamber music performances have taken Yuuki to the U.S.A, U.K., Scandinavia, Continental Europe, South America, New Zealand, Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Not only is the geographical scope diverse, other highlights include performances for the President of Singapore, for HRH Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, and with orchestras such as the Helsinki Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Singapore Symphony, Vienna Mozart Ensemble, Corpus Christi Symphony, Bruno Walter Festival Orchestra.
3rd Place - Stefan Hempel (Germany)
Stefan is the first prize winner of the Ibolyka-Gyarfas-Foundation (Berlin) and won second prize at the Deutscher Hochschulwettbewerb 2004 Frankfurt am Main, the International Joseph Joachim Competition Weimar 2005 and International Königin Sophie-Charlotte Competition, won the “Boris-Pergamenschikow Prize for Chamber Music” in 2005, and third prize at the International Max Rostal Competition in 2006.
Stefan’s ensemble, the Morgenstern Trio, was chosen for this season’s “Rising Star” concert series which will see them performing in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Philharmonie Luxemobourg, the Philharmonie Cologne, Paris’s Cite de la Musique, Barceloa, Athens, Birmingham, and the Nusikverein in Vienna. In January 2010 the trio was honoured with the only existing worldwide Piano Trio Award: The “Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson-International-Trio Award” which provided a major US tour through important concert halls including Carnegie Halll and a CD production.
A passionate chamber musician, Stefan has played recitals as the Primarius of the Chagall String Quartet. He has performed with Guy Braunstein, Tanja Tetzlaff, and Hariolf Schlichtig. Stefan is a member of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation “Life music now”, and plays a violin made by Nicolaus Gagliano, Naples 1734.
LEARN MORE ABOUT STEFAN HEMPEL.
