Tchaikovsky Int’l Competition Violin winner, March 18, 2012 – 2pm

Introducing one of the hottest young violinists in the WORLD!

The Tchaikovsky Violin Competition winner is…

Itamar Zorman

“virtuoso of emotions”

Click Here for the program

This performance is sponsored by Jeff Leiter, Don and Elisabeth Noel and Wells Fargo Bank

About Itamar Zorman:

Violinist Itamar Zorman is the winner of the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia, and has performed the winners’ concerts with Maestro Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra.

Born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, in 1985 to a family of musicians, Itamar Zorman graduated from the Israeli Conservatory of Music in Tel-Aviv in 2003, where he began his violin studies at the age of six with Saly Bockel, before continuing his studies with Professor David Chen and Nava Milo. Mr. Zorman received his Bachelor’s degree from the Jerusalem Academy of Music in 2006 where he studied with Nava Milo and Hagai Shaham. At the same time, he was the first violinist in the Israel Army’s IDF String Quartet. He received his Master’s of Music from The Juilliard School in 2009, where he studied with Robert Mann and Sylvia Rosenberg, and received an Artist Diploma from Manhattan School of Music in 2010. Currently, Mr. Zorman studies with Ms. Rosenberg at The Juilliard School in the Artist Diploma Program. He plays on a Pietro Guarneri violin from 1745 from the private collection of Yehuda Zisapel.

 

Awards:

•  First prize, and the special prize for a performance of a Mozart Concerto, in the 2010 International Violin Competition of Freiburg.

•  The Juilliard School’s Concerto Competition (2010), he performed with the Juilliard Orchestra and Conductor James DePreist in Avery Fisher Hall.

•  2010 King Award for Young Artists competition

•  2010 Eisenberg-Fried concerto competition at Manhattan School of Music.

• 2006 Ben-Haim solo competition

•  2004 Claremont Competition

•  2004 Rubin Academy Jerusalem Contest

•  2002 Israeli Conservatory Competition

•  2005 ISA Prague-Vienna-Budapest Competition for contemporary music

•  2001, he won a special prize in Kloster Shontal International competition for young violinists in Germany.

In the chamber music arena, as a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, he has won prizes at the Arriaga, Coleman and Fishoff Chamber Music Competitions, and first prize in the Jerusalem Academy’s chamber music contest as a member of the IDF String Quartet, among others.

Orchestral appearances:

Among the orchestras with which he has performed as a soloist are the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the JerusalemSymphony, Bäden Bädener Philharmonie, the Israeli Chamber Crchestra, the Israel Sinfonietta, the Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, the Salina Symphony and Greenwich Village Orchestra.

Chamber appearances:

As a chamber musician, Mr. Zorman has appeared at Lincoln Center, Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center in Washinton, DC. A founding member of the “Israeli Chamber Project”, Mr. Zorman has toured with the internationally-acclaimed group across Israel and North America for the past four seasons. Together with pianist Liza Stepanova and cellist Michael Katz, Mr. Zorman is also a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, with which he won the 1st prize in the Arriaga and the Coleman chamber music competitions

Media appearances:

In addition to appearances in concert halls, Itamar Zorman has performed numerous times for radio and television. He has performed live for radio stations in Israel, Austria, Russia and the United States, including New-York’s WQXR’s “Young Artist Showcase”. In July 2010, Mr. Zorman played in a series of recitals broadcast on Radio France for the Radio France Festival in Montpellier, France.

Scholarships and Masterclasses:

A recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation (through which he was invited to become a member of the young musicians unit of the Jerusalem Music Center) and the Ilona Feher Foundation, Itamar Zorman has participated in numerous master classes around the world, working with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Shlomo Mintz, Ida Handel and Ivry Gitlis, to name a few. He has also participaed in festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the NAC Young artist program in Ottawa (Canada), Keshet Eilon (Israel), Voice of Music (Israel), Masters de Belesba (Frnace), The Heifetz International Music Institute (New Hampshire) and Chatauqua (New-York), and ISA Prague-Vienna-Budapest (Austria).

Itamar Zolmar as the Tchaikovsky International Competition winner is brought to us through artist representation of OPUS 3 Artists.

Accompanist Pianist Euntack Kim

Euntaek Kim, native of Incheon, South Korea and based in New York, has established himself as one of the most promising young talents of his generation. Hailed by La Libre Belgique as “sovereign… with luminous sonority,” Mr. Kim won prizes from many prestigious competitions, the 2001 Oberlin International Competition and the 2002 International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians among many others, and was also invited to participate in the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels.

Mr. Kim has appeared at major venues around the world, such as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, the Brown Theatre in Louisville, KY, and Benedict Music Tent at Aspen, CO.

A frequent guest in major summer music festivals, Mr. Kim has been present in Aspen Music Festival and School, Music Academy of the West, and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. He began his piano studies at four, and at age eleven, he entered the Pre-College Division of Korean National University of Arts in Seoul as a pupil of Bokhee Chang. In 2001, He moved to New York and soon began his studies at Juilliard’s Pre-College Division with the support of the Nordmann Full Scholarship. He holds both bachelor and master of music degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal. He is currently pursuing the Artist Diploma program at Yale School of Music under the guidance of Boris Berman.

About the Competition:

The International Tchaikovsky Competition, first held more than 50 years ago, is not only a valuable asset of Russian musical culture but is also one of the major events in the international music community. Participation by previous generations of musicians, including Dmitri Shostakovich, David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, Mstislav Rostropovich, Heinrich Neuhaus, Tikhon Khrennikov and Georgy Sviridov, have enabled scores of young people from many countries to gain international prominence and to become established luminaries of the world’s leading concert stages. Past editions have spawned such renowned musicians as pianists Van Cliburn, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mikhail Pletnev, Grigory Sokolov; violinists Viktor Tretiakov, Gidon Kremer, Victoria Mullova; cellists David Geringas, Nathaniel Rosen, Antonio Meneses and singers Evgeny Nesterenko, Elena Obraztsova and Deborah Voigt.

The International Tchaikovsky Competition is held once every four years. The first, in 1958, included two disciplines – piano and violin. Beginning with the second competition, in 1962, a cello category was added, and the vocal division was introduced during the third competition in 1966. In 1990, a fifth discipline was announced for the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition — a contest for violin makers which traditionally comes before the main competition.

The violin competition was on June 16 – 30, 2011 with the Closing Gala Concert on July 2.

27 violinists competed in this year’s International Tchaikovsky Competition to took place between June 14th and July 2nd in St. Petersburg under the chairmanship of Valery Gergiev.