Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, was an American-born violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the great violinists of the 20th century. He played the Soil Stradivarius, considered one of the finest violins made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari.
Jacqueline Mary du Pré was a British cellist. At a young age, she achieved enduring mainstream popularity. Despite her short career, she is regarded as one of the greatest cellists of all time.
Kam Ning is a violinist and daughter of the violinist-composer Kam Kee Yong (甘琦勇), and grandchild of Kam Beng Soo and Ooi Kooi Aun. Born in Singapore in 1975, she was given violin lessons at the age of six by the elder Kam, and had her early education at the Methodist Girls' School.
Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, is his last large orchestral work. It holds an important place in the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos in history. A typical performance lasts just under half an hour.
Pamela Frank is an American violinist, with an active international career across a varied range of performing activity. Her musicianship was recognized in 1999 with the Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists. In addition to her career as a performer, Frank holds the Herbert R. and Evelyn Axelrod Chair in Violin Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she has taught since 1996, and is also an Adjunct Professor of Violin at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music since 2018.
Leila Bronia Josefowicz is an American-Canadian classical violinist.
Chloë Elise Hanslip is a British classical violinist.
Julia Fischer is a German classical violinist and pianist. She teaches at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts and performs up to 60 times per year.
Nicola Joy Nadia Benedetti CBE is a Scottish-Italian classical solo violinist. Her ability was recognised when she was a child, including the award of BBC Young Musician of the Year when she was 16 and also many other awards. She works with orchestras in Europe and America as well as Alexei Grynyuk, her regular pianist. Since 2012 she has played the Gariel Stradivarius violin.
Jennifer Elizabeth Pike is a British violinist.
Chen Jiafeng is a Chinese violinist. He was the first prize winner in the 2003 International Competition for Young Violinists K. Lipinski and H. Wieniawski and the second prize winner in the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, and the second prize of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki.
The Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra in D minor was composed by Felix Mendelssohn at the age of thirteen. It has three movements, Allegro–Andante–Allegro, and performance duration is approximately 22 minutes.
Alina Rinatovna Ibragimova is a Russian-British violinist.
The Barjansky Stradivarius of c.1690 is an antique cello fabricated by the Italian Cremonese luthier Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737).
Boris Davidovich Belkin is a Soviet-born violin virtuoso.
Ray Chen is a Taiwanese-Australian violinist. He was the first prize winner in the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition.
Ivy Priaulx Rainier was a South African-British composer. Although she lived most of her life in England and died in France, her compositional style was strongly influenced by the African music remembered from her childhood. She never adopted 12-tone or serial techniques, but her music shows a profound understanding of that musical language. She can be credited with the first truly athematic works composed in England. Her Cello Concerto was premiered by Jacqueline du Pré in 1964, and her Violin Concerto Due Canti e Finale was premiered by Yehudi Menuhin in 1977.
Norman Perryman was born in Birmingham, England in 1933, was educated at the Worcester Royal Grammar School, and studied painting and art education at the Birmingham College of Art and Crafts, graduating with Honours in 1954. He emigrated to the Netherlands in 1957, then moved to Switzerland. He was Head of Art at Aiglon College (1967–73) and from 1976–1990 was Chief Examiner for the Visual Arts programme of the International Baccalaureate, designing and developing the Visual Art curriculum and travelling worldwide to give workshops on the role of the arts in education and the relationships of the visual arts and music. He returned to Holland in 1978 and now lives in Amsterdam.
Ning Feng is a Chinese violinist. He was born in Chengdu, China, and is based in Berlin.
Kevin Zhu is an American violinist. He is a recipient of the 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, one of the most prestigious awards in classical music. He was the first prize winner of the 55th edition of the International Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy. He was also the first prize winner in the junior division of the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Beijing, China. In 2019, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall at Weill Recital Hall.
