IVCI 2010 Laureates
Clara-Jumi Kang, Germany/South Korea – Gold Medalist
An artist of impeccable elegance and poise, Clara-Jumi Kang has carved an international career performing with the leading orchestras and conductors across Asia and Europe. Winner of the 2010 Indianapolis International Violin Competition, Kang’s other accolades include first prizes at the Seoul Violin Competition (2009) and the Sendai Violin Competition (2010).
Having made her concerto debut at the age of five with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Kang has since performed with leading European orchestras including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
In the U.S., she has performed with orchestras including the Atlanta, New Jersey, Indianapolis and Santa Fe symphony orchestras, while elsewhere highlights have included appearances with the Mariinsky Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, NCPA Beijing Orchestra, Macao Philharmonic and the Taipei Symphony. A prominent figure in Korea, Clara-Jumi Kang has performed withall ofthe major Korean orchestras and in 2012 was selected as one of the top 100 “most promising and influential people of Korea” by major Korean newspaper Dong-A Times. She returns annually to Korea for tours and was awarded the 2012 Daewon Music Award for her outstanding international achievements, as well as being named Kumho Musician of the Year in 2015.
She has collaborated with eminent conductors including Valery Gergiev, Lionel Bringuier, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Andrey Boreyko, Christoph Poppen, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, Gidon Kremer, Gilbert Varga, LüJia, Myun-Whun Chung, Heinz Holliger and Kazuki Yamada.
Clara-Jumi Kang’s first solo album entitled Modern Solo was released on Decca in 2011 and featured works including Schubert’s Erlkönig and Ysaÿe’s solo sonatas. Her second recording for the label featuring Brahms and Schumann violin sonatas with pianist Yeol-Eum Son was released in 2016.
A devoted chamber musician, Kang is a regular visitor to festivals across Asia and Europe, with recent highlights including the Pyeongchang, Hong Kong, Ishikawa and Marvao Chamber Music Festivals. She is also a member of the Berlin Spectrum Concerts series and has collaborated with artists including Boris Berezovsky, Boris Brovtsyn, Eldar Nebolsin, Gidon Kremer, Guy Braunstein, Julian Rachlin, Maxim Rysanov, Misha Maisky, Sunwook Kim, Vadim Repin and Yeol-Eum Son.
Born in Germany to a musical family, Clara-Jumi Kang took up the violin at the age of three, and a year later enrolled as the youngest ever student at the Mannheim Musikhochschule. She went on to study with Zakhar Bron at the Lübeck Musikhochschule and at the age of seven was awarded a full scholarship to the Julliard School to study with Dorothy DeLay. She took her bachelor and masters degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before completing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen.
Clara-Jumi Kang currently plays the 1708 “ex-Strauss” Stradivarius, generously on loan to her from the Samsung Cultural Foundation Korea.
Soyoung Yoon, South Korea – Silver Medalist
Soyoung Yoon has garnered acclaim for her “meticulous… highly disciplined” (Gramophone) and “suave” performances whose “technical perfection… is always placed at the service of the music” (The Guardian). Prize winner of major competitions including the Yehudi Menuhin (first prize), Henryk Wieniawski (first prize), and Indianapolis (Silver Medalist) violin competitions, Soyoung has earned the respect of her peers as a violinist and chamber musician of the highest calibre.
Soyoung is increasingly in demand on the international stage, having performed as soloist with a number of leading orchestras to date, including the Czech National Symphony, Prague Philharmonia, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony, Bern Symphony, Trondheim Symphony, Trondheim Soloists, and Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Her growing list of collaborators includes Krzysztof Penderecki, Ivor Bolton, Krzysztof Urbanski, Muhai Tang, Maxim Vengerov, Eiji Oue and Michal Nesterowicz.
Soyoung frequently collaborates with the Korean Chamber Orchestra, having recorded Piazzolla’s Four Seasons and Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin and Piano with them, touring through Asia, Europe, and North America in the process. Along with Veit Hertenstein and Benjamin Gregor-Smith, she founded the ORION String Trio in 2012, winning both first prize and the audience prize at the 2016 “Migros Kulturprozent” Chamber Music Competition in Zurich, and having performed in venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Zurich Tonhalle, Stuttgart, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Manchester.
Based between Barcelona and Seoul, Soyoung studied at the National University of the Arts in South Korea, with Zakhar Bron at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, and at the Zurich University of the Arts. She plays the J. B. Guadagnini violin (ex-Bückeburg) made in Turin in 1773.
Benjamin Beilman, United States – Bronze Medalist
Benjamin Beilman’s “handsome technique, burnished sound and quiet confidence showed why he has come so far so fast” (The New York Times). He is the recipient of a 2014 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship as well as a 2012 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2012 London Music Masters Award. This season, Mr. Beilman makes his Carnegie Hall concerto debut with the New York Youth Symphony in Stern Auditorium; additional concerto debuts this season include appearances with the London Philharmonic at Royal Festival Hall, the Los Angeles and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestras, the Buffalo and Chicago Philharmonics, and the Fort Worth and Greenville Symphonies. He also makes his Carnegie Hall recital debut at Weill Hall in a program that includes the premiere of a new work by David Ludwig, commissioned by Carnegie Hall. Other recital highlights include appearances at the Louvre Museum in Paris, Zürich’s Tonhalle, University of Florida Performing Arts, the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, and Ravinia’s Rising Stars Series.
Abroad, Mr. Beilman has appeared as soloist with the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner, in Canada with L’Orchestre Métropoliatin de Montréal under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and with the Malaysian Philharmonic under Hans Graf. Mr. Beilman has also soloed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Detroit and Kansas City Symphonies, and performed the Jennifer Higdon Violin Concerto with the South Dakota and Glens Falls Symphonies. Past recital appearances include the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society as recipient of Philadelphia’s 2010 Musical Fund Society Career Award, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, MusicFest Vancouver, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Wigmore Hall in London, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany, and Basel’s Rising Stars Series.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Beilman appears regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as a member of CMS Two. He also appears as a guest artist at Music@Menlo, Bay Chamber Concerts, Music from Angel Fire, and Chamber Music Northwest as well as the Bridgehampton, Marlboro, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Sedona Chamber Music Festivals. Mr. Beilman collaborates abroad at the Kronberg Academy in Frankfurt, Spectrum Concerts Berlin, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
In 2010, he won First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Audition and YCA’s Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship. He performed acclaimed debut recitals in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York, sponsored by the Summmis Auspiciis Prize, and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center.
As First Prize Winner of the 2010 Montréal International Musical Competition and winner of the People’s Choice Award, Mr. Beilman recorded Prokofiev’s complete violin sonatas on the Analekta label in 2011. He won the Bronze Medal at the 2010 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and prizes for the best Bach performance and Mozart sonata performance; First Prize in the 2009 Schmidbauer and Corpus Christi International Competitions in Texas, where he was also awarded special Bach prize; and the Gold Medal at the Stulberg International String Competition. Mr. Beilman was a winner of Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions and the Milka/Astral Violin Prize. He was a 2007 Presidential Scholar in the Arts and recipient of a Gold Award in Music from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. He has been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and “From the Top;” on WQXR’s McGraw-Hill “Young Artists Showcase;” and Chicago WFMT’s “Impromptu.”
Mr. Beilman previously studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago, Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music, and Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy. He plays the “ex Mary Portman” Guarneri del Gesù from 1735 on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
Haoming Xie, China
At the age of six, Xie began his violin study with Guo Guo-Guang. Xie later studied with renowned professor Lin Yao-Ji of Central Conservatory of Music and with Chai Liang and Yu Bing. Xie also received instruction from renowned violinists Joseph Silverstein, Pinchas Zukerman, Augustin Dumay, Midori, and others, and got high praise.” Xie is one of the most talented young violinists of his generation,” remarked Jaime Laredo.
Xie has won numerous awards and prizes including China National Violin Competition, the 2007 Chinese “National Golden Bell Awards for Music”, the China International Violin Competition, and the 2010 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis where he won special prizes for best performance of a violin-piano sonata and an Ysaÿe sonata.
At age 18 he performed a solo at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Celebration Concert. In 2007 he performed and recorded “Les Argeges” by Wieniawski and Paganini’s Caprice #24 in recital and at the Avsharian studio at The Meadowmount School of Music in New York. He participated in and was interviewed at a special 2010 Christopher Hogwood baroque musicmaster class in Beijing. In 2011 he performed Tchaikovsky with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Zhang Zhenshan at the Fete de la Musique in Shanghai, and that same year he appeared as a featured soloist in a celebration concert for Professor Lin Yaoji’s Achievements in Violin Education.
Xie has been invited to perform as soloist with many eminent orchestras and conductors, including China National Radio & Film Symphony Orchestra, China Opera Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Nouve Musiche Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and others. Xie has also been invited to perform in the USA, Europe, and Canada. Several of his recitals and concerts have been broadcast on CCTV(China Central TV).
Several live recordings have been produced by Beijing Audio & Video Co.
Antal Zalai, Hungary
Antal Zalai was born into a musical family in Budapest, began to play the violin at the age of five, and won his first competition three years later. Recognized as a child prodigy, at age eleven Antal performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto in A major with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra.
He received his initial musical training in Budapest from László Dénes (one of the most prestigious Hungarian violin pedagogues whose methodology publications were praised by Menuhin among others), Péter Komlós (1st violinist of the Bartók Quartet), furthering his violin studies under Pinchas Zukerman at the Manhattan School of Music and Kati Sebestyén at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, winning the “Lecrinier” and “Darche” prizes upon graduation.
At age 15, Antal performed the Bartók Violin Concerto No. 1 at Lord Yehudi Menuhin’s 80th anniversary tribute, after which Menuhin called him “one of the most wonderful young violinists I have ever heard.” He was also invited to play for Leopold Auer’s anniversary tribute recital at the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonia, for Prince Charles as a recipient of the Sir George Solti Foundation Scholarship at Kensington Palace in London, and at the Chi Mei Museum in Taiwan, playing the 1722 “ex-Mischa Elman” Stradivarius from the Museum’s collection.
Antal has performed nearly twenty five violin concertos ranging from Bach to Nielsen, Khachaturian and Bartók. Besides the standard repertoire, Antal has thematic violin recital programs, such as “Opera on Four Strings,” “Gershwin and More; Classic and Jazz,” “1944,” and “Magyar Magic.” Norwegian composer Filip Sande dedicated his Violin Concerto Op. 69 to him in 2007.
Antal has received exceptional acclaim as a recording artist since the release of his debut album of solo pieces by BMC Records. The album received a 10/10 review from Classics Today and earned praise from BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone and Diverdi. His tribute album to Leopold Auer released by Hungaroton Classic is described by Fanfare Magazine,”At times Zalai plays with the aristocratic aplomb of Milstein – and with a tonal luster to match.” His recording released by Brilliant Classics in 2010 features George Enescu’s violin sonatas accompanied by József Balog, with whom he has played since he was eight years old. His most recent recording is a 3-CD boxed set for Brilliant Classics of the complete music of Béla Bartók for violin and piano.
Recently, he made his Berlin debut with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin under Ludovic Morlot at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. His Viennese debut followed at the Wiener Symphoniker’s “Springtime in Vienna” gala concert conducted by Fabio Luisi in the Wiener Musikverein. This last event was broadcast on ORF2 and 3SAT television. In addition to Ludovic Morlot and Fabio Luisi, he has worked with conductors Paavo Järvi, Yoel Levi, Lawrence Foster, Gilbert Varga, Zoltán Kocsis, Shlomo Mintz, Enrique Bátiz, Yip Wing-sie, Laurent Petitgirard, Mykola Dyadyura and Gábor Takács-Nagy, among others. Antal makes regular appearances alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Prague Philharmonia, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic and State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. Antal has recently performed at the Festival Internacional de Música de Piracicaba in Brazil, on Bartók Radio with Jósef Balog in Budapest, and the Sinfonietta Veracruzana with Yuri Bullón in Monterrey, Mexico.
He has played in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall in New York City, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in Washington, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Concert Hall of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver as a recitalist.
His festival appearances include the Istanbul International Music Festival, George Enescu Festival, David Oistrakh Festival in Estonia, Al Bustan Festival in Lebanon, Budapest Spring Festival, Sarajevo Winter Festival, Festival Cultural de Mayo in Mexico, Russian Spring Festival and the “Virtuosos of the Planet” Festival in Kyiv. He also appeared in the “Naumburg Orchestral Concerts” at the Naumburg Bandshell in New York’s Central Park.
His thoughtful musicianship and consummate technical command were hailed by some of the world’s greatest musicians such as Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Shlomo Mintz, Fabio Luisi, Erick Friedman, Tibor Varga as well as audiences around the world: he was chosen among the top 10 greatest violinists of our time at a recent survey on the internet.
Antal plays the 1733 “ex-Garay” Antonius Stradivarius.
Andrey Baranov, Russia
Andrey Baranov is winner of the Queen Elisabeth, the Benjamin Britten, and the Henri Marteau International Violin competitions, and is prizewinner of more than twenty other international competitions including the Indianapolis, Seoul, Sendai, Liana Isakadze, David Oistrakh, and Paganini (Moscow).
Born in St. Petersburg in 1986 into a family of musicians, Andrey began playing the violin at the age of five. He attended the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg and Conservatoire de Lausanne. He studied with L. Ivaschenko, V. Ovcharek, P. Popov, and the legendary French violinist Pierre Amoyal. Andrey also has taken masterclasses from B. Kushnir, L. Isakadze, and K. Kashkashian, among many others.
Since making his major debut in 2005 at St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall under V. Petrenko and the Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrey has performed on renowned stages throughout the world including Bozar Brussels, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Großer Saal Mozarteum, Cadogan Hall London, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and St. Petersburg Philharmonic halls.
Many of Andrey’s performances have been broadcast worldwide on BR Klassik, Radio Orpheus, Espace 2 (Switzerland), YLE Radio (Finland), WFYI, WFMT Chicago (USA), and NHK Sendai (Japan).
Andrey has already appeared with leading international orchestras including Luxembourg Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, MusicAeterna Orchestra, St-Petersburg Philharmonic, Sendai Philharmonic, Royal Phiharmonic London and SWR Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra under conductors T. Currentzis, V. Petrenko, N. Alekseev, M. Tabachnik, W. Weller, E. Krivine, and K. Yamashita, among others.
Andrey has performed alongside such artists as Martha Argerich, Julian Rachlin, Boris Andrianov, Pierre Amoyal, and Liana Isakadze.
At the age of only 23 Andrey was appointed as teaching assistant to Pierre Amoyal at the Conservatoire de Lausanne and has since been in demand as a teacher at many international masterclasses. He has been invited to institutions in Chicago, Bangkok, Riga, Vilnius, Stockholm, Manchester, Moscow, and more.
In 2011 Andrey was invited by maestro Teodor Currentzis to join MusicAeterna symphony orchestra in Perm State Theater as guest concertmaster.
Andrey is first violinist of the David Oistrakh Quartet, an outstanding ensemble established in 2012.
Andrey is grateful to have been lent various great violins. At the Queen Elisabeth Competition he performed on a Poggi (1947) “ex-Milstein” violin on loan from the Munetsugu Hall – Yellow Angel Foundation in Japan, and upon winning the first prize Andrey received the Stradivarius violin (1708) “Huggins” which is currently on loan from Nippon Music Foundation.