Donald Weilerstein | |
---|---|
Born | 1940 (age 83–84) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Spouse | Vivian Hornik Weilerstein |
Children | Alisa Weilerstein, Joshua Weilerstein |
Academic background | |
Education | Juilliard School (BM, MM) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Music |
Sub-discipline | Violin performance |
Institutions | Juilliard School New England Conservatory of Music |
Donald Weilerstein (born 1940) is an American violinist and pedagogue.
Weilerstein was born in Washington,D.C.,and raised in Berkeley,California. He began playing the violin at the age of four and earned a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from the Juilliard School. [1]
In 1969,he founded the Cleveland Quartet,becoming its first violinist,a position he held until 1989. [2] [3] Since 2004,he has been the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Violin Studies at New England Conservatory of Music and since 2001,he is a faculty member at the Juilliard School. [4] His students have won first prize in the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists and first prize in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. [5] [6] In addition,he is a member of the Weilerstein Trio with his daughter,Alisa Weilerstein,and wife,Vivian Hornik Weilerstein. Weilerstein is a fellow of the Music Academy of the West. [7] His son,Joshua Weilerstein,is conductor with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
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.
Stefan Milenkovich is a Serbian violinist.
The Shanghai Quartet is a string quartet that formed in 1983. The quartet is made up of:first violinist Weigang Li,second violinist Angelo Xiang Yu,violist Honggang Li,and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras. On November 20,2020 the ensemble announced the newest member,Angelo Xiang Yu. The Shanghai Quartet accepted the resignation of former second violinist Yi-Wen Jiang on March 17,2020. The group's tours have included North America,South America,Japan,China,Australia,New Zealand,and Europe. Among their performances,the Shanghai Quartet has developed a long list of performance collaborators including Yo-Yo Ma,David Soyer,Eugenia Zukerman,Sharon Isbin,Ruth Laredo,Arnold Steinhardt,and Chanticleer.
Sirena Huang is an American concert violinist. She has received numerous awards,including First Prize at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis,First Prize at the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition,First Place at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians,and Third Place at the Singapore International Violin Competition and the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition. She has performed with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic,Baltimore Symphony Orchestra,the Cleveland Orchestra,Singapore Symphony Orchestra,and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Huang was appointed as the first Artist-in-Residence of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in 2011.
Julia Sakharova is a professional violinist. A native of Zheleznovodsk,Russia,she debuted at the age of eight with the Moldavian Symphony Orchestra. Her mother is also a musician. By the age of 11,she was already internationally known as a child prodigy due to her skills on the violin. At the age of 15,she won the top prize in the International Competition for Music of Eastern and Central Europe;Vladimir Spivakov,the head of the jury,presented her with his bow in addition to the prize. She attended Oberlin College,graduating in 2003 with a major in violin performance;she studied under Milan Vitek while there. That same year,she competed in the Concours International de Montréal des Jeunesses Musicales,and won sixth prize. In 2005,she visited Caracas,Venezuela to perform with the National Philharmonic Orchestra there. She has been Assistant Concertmaster of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra since 2008. Since 2012 Sakharova is the newest member of the Arianna String Quartet which is on Residence at the University of Missouri St. Louis. She is part of the Music Faculty as Associate Professor of Violin. In 2024,Sakharova was appointed Concertmaster with Orchestra Iowa.
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,the second prize winner of the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the second prize of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki.
Alisa Weilerstein is an American classical cellist. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.
The Cleveland Quartet was a string quartet founded in 1969 by violinist Donald Weilerstein,at the time an instructor at the Cleveland Institute of Music,whose director Victor Babin had secured funding for an in-resident quartet to be headed by Weilerstein. Weilerstein formed the group that summer at the Marlboro Music School and Festival with violinist Peter Salaff,violist Martha Strongin Katz,and cellist Paul Katz. The group was initially called the "New Cleveland Quartet." In 1971,the group left the Cleveland Institute because of disagreements over teaching loads and took up residency at the University at Buffalo,The State University of New York;they dropped the word "New" from their name at this time. In 1976,the quartet made their final change of residency and moved to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester,New York.
Frank Xin Huang is a Chinese-born American violinist and teacher. Since 2015 he has been the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. Previous to his position in New York,Huang was the first violinist of the Ying Quartet and a professor of violin and chamber music at the Eastman School of Music,then served as the concertmaster of the Houston Symphony from 2010 to 2015. He has won several international music competitions,most notably the 2003 Naumburg Competition. Huang has concertized widely as a soloist,and his debut recording on Naxos was critically acclaimed.
Martha Strongin Katz is a violist and member of the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston,Massachusetts,where she teaches viola and chamber music. She was a founding member of the Cleveland Quartet,along with her former husband,Paul Katz (cellist),and Peter Salaff and Donald Weilerstein (violinists). From 1969 until her departure from the group in 1980,she performed more than 1,000 concerts,including appearances at the White House,the Grammy Awards,on the NBC Today Show,and in the major concert halls of five continents.
Liviu Prunaru is a Romanian violinist. He serves as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra's concertmaster together with Vesko Eschkenazy.
Richard Lin is a Taiwanese American violinist. He won competitions in Poland,United States,Singapore,Japan,and Taiwan. In 2013 he won the first prize in the Sendai International Music Competition. In 2015 he was the third prize laureate in 9th Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover. In 2016 he was the fifth prize laureate in 15th Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. In 2018 he won First Prize in 10th International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.
Timothy Chooi is a Canadian–American violinist and University of Ottawa professor of Chinese-Indonesian ethnic background. He won the First Prize at the 2018 International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition and Second Prize at the 2019 Queen Elisabeth Competition. He has also won prizes at the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition,Michael Hill International Violin Competition and the Grand Prize at the 2010 Montreal ManuLife Competition.
Kenneth Renshaw is an American concert violinist.
Stella Chen is an American violinist. She was the first prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels,Belgium in 2019;won the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2020;and was named the Young Artist of the Year,Gramophone Classical Music Awards in 2023.
Kevin Zhu is an American concert violinist. He is a recipient of the 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was the first prize winner of the 55th edition of the International Paganini Competition in Genoa,Italy,aged just 17. 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.
Anna Ji-eun Lee,known professionally as Anna Lee,is an American concert violinist of Korean descent. She made her professional orchestral debut at the age of 6 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Stephen Waarts is a Dutch American violinist. He was the first prize winner in the senior division of the 2014 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Austin,Texas. He was also the fifth prize winner of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels,Belgium.
Randall Goosby is an American concert violinist. He is the recipient of the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant and was the first prize winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 2018.
Joshua Weilerstein is an American conductor and violinist.