{"id":89611,"date":"2022-12-21T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=89611"},"modified":"2022-12-21T11:18:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T16:18:12","slug":"scoop-two-canadians-advance-quarter-finals-michael-hill-international-violin-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2022\/12\/21\/scoop-two-canadians-advance-quarter-finals-michael-hill-international-violin-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Two Canadians Advance To Quarter-Finals Of Michael Hill International Violin Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_89612\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89612\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-89612\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/Michael-Hill-Violin-Competition-Canadians.jpg\" alt=\"Canadian violinists Gabrielle Despr\u00e9s and Julia Mirzoev (Photos courtesy of the artists)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-89612\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Canadian violinists Gabrielle Despr\u00e9s and Julia Mirzoev (Photos courtesy of the artists)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Canadian musicians <strong>Gabrielle Despr\u00e9s<\/strong> and <strong>Julia Mirzoev<\/strong> have advanced to the quarter-finals of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition. The 11th edition of the competition, dubbed the &#8220;New Zealand Violin Olympics&#8221;, will be held for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The competition is open to violinists between the ages of 18 and 28, and drew a record number of 160 applicants for the next iteration, which will take place from<strong> June 2 to 10, 2023<\/strong> in New Zealand. Originally held on a biennial basis, the event is now held every three years.<\/p>\n<p>At stake is a top prize of <strong>$40,000 NZ<\/strong>, a <strong>Winners tour<\/strong> that will take them on the road with Chamber Music New Zealand, and a <strong>recording contract<\/strong> on the Atoll label. There will also be a special prize of the three-year loan of an instrument from Rare Violins of New York.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe selection panel of five wonderful violinists \u2014 Andrew Beer, Bella Hristova, Wilma Smith, Robin Wilson and Vesa-Matti Lepp\u00e4nen \u2014 worked extremely hard, carefully assessing all of the applicants\u2019 videos. It took them a full five days arrive at an outcome,\u201d says <strong>Anne Rodda<\/strong>, Executive Director, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhillviolincompetition.co.nz\/record-entries-in-new-zealands-violin-olympic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA really obvious development in this generation of high-performance violinists is their awareness of the changes in the industry and the expectation of young musicians that they embrace a multi-faceted and self-initiated career pathway. Heartening is the number that genuinely want to serve their communities and work in non-traditional settings to reach new audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The remaining 2023 quarter-finalists (including age and country):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jiayi Chen, 26 \u2014 China\/Austria<\/li>\n<li>Kingston Ho, 21 \u2014 USA<\/li>\n<li>Seonglan Hong, 21 \u2014 South Korea<\/li>\n<li>Yeyeong Jin, 19 \u2014 South Korea\/USA<\/li>\n<li>Lorenz Karls, 21 \u2014 Sweden\/Austria<\/li>\n<li>Tianyu Liu, 23 \u2014 China\/USA<\/li>\n<li>Audrey Park, 20 \u2014 USA<\/li>\n<li>Eva Rabchevska, 26 \u2014 Ukraine\/Germany<\/li>\n<li>Aoi Saito, 25 \u2014 Japan\/Germany<\/li>\n<li>Hani Song, 25 \u2014 Switzerland\/Germany<\/li>\n<li>Karen Su, 24 \u2014 USA\/Belgium<\/li>\n<li>Yuri Tanaka, 17 \u2014 Japan\/Germany<\/li>\n<li>Ayaka Uchio, 25 \u2014 Japan\/Germany<\/li>\n<li>Claire Wells, 21 \u2014 USA\/Germany<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Selection Panelist and APO Concertmaster <strong>Andrew Beer<\/strong> says, \u201cThis is my fourth time being a part of the selection panel for the MHIVC and we\u2019ve never seen so many strong applicants. The future of violin playing is bright and this June\u2019s competition is going to be phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gradually whittled down to a field of three finalists, the grand finale concert will see each perform with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.<\/p>\n<p>For the competition in June, the international judging panel includes former competition winners Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova (2007); Chinese Ning Feng (2005); and Russian born, NZ raised Natalia Lomeiko (2003); Wilma Smith (NZ\/AU) and pianist Piers Lane (UK). They will be joined by internationally renowned Canadian violinist <strong>James Ehnes<\/strong> and celebrated UK violinist <strong>Anthony Marwood.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The international competition is a glimpse at the stars of tomorrow. Past laureates of the Michael Hill prize include international soloist <strong>Ray Chen<\/strong>, <strong>Josef Spa\u010dek<\/strong>, currently concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and Canadian\/American violinist and professor <strong>Timothy Chooi<\/strong>, among many others.<\/p>\n<h2>The Canadian contingent<\/h2>\n<p>Both of the competitors with Canadian roots have impressive resumes, and a string of previous wins to their credit.<\/p>\n<h3>Julia Mirzoev<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The Toronto native earned her B.M. at the University of Toronto, studying with TSO Concertmaster Jonathan Crow;<\/li>\n<li>She received a Graduate Diploma in Professional Performance from McGill University&#8217;s Schulich School of Music;<\/li>\n<li>She received her M.M. degree at the Yale School of Music, studying with Ani Kavafian;<\/li>\n<li>She was also awarded the Broadus Erle graduating prize at Yale;<\/li>\n<li>Third Prize winner of the 2019 Irving M. Klein International String Competition &amp; prize for Best Performance of the Commissioned Work.;<\/li>\n<li>First prize at the Cremona International Festival Competition;<\/li>\n<li>Grand prize at the Canadian Music Competition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>She\u2019s performed as a soloist with Sinfonia Toronto, the University of Toronto Symphony, Orchestra Toronto, and the Toronto Symphony, along with the Montreal Chamber Music Festival orchestra and Scarborough Philharmonic.<\/p>\n<p>As a dedicated chamber musician, Julia is a founding member of the Myriade String Quartet, selected to compete in the live rounds of the Wigmore Hall and Trondheim String Quartet competitions.<\/p>\n<h3>Gabrielle Despr\u00e9s<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The Alberta native earned a Bachelor of Music at the Juilliard School, studying with Masao Kawasaki and Joseph Lin (who took first prize at the inaugural Michael Hill competition);<\/li>\n<li>She is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree as a recipient of the Kovner Fellowship at Juilliard, studying with Catherine Cho and Donald Weilerstein;<\/li>\n<li>First Prize in the 2022 Juilliard Concerto Competition;<\/li>\n<li>First Prize in the 2020 Irving M. Klein International String Competition;<\/li>\n<li>Second Prize in the 2021 Shean Strings Competition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Gabrielle has performed as a soloist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Edmonton, and served as Concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra in 2021. Gabrielle plays on a 1790 Giuseppe and Antonio Gagliano of Naples violin on loan from the Brobst Violin Shop.<\/p>\n<p>Good luck to all the competitors.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em><b>#LUDWIGVAN<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n<p class=\"western\"><em>Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em>Sign up for the Ludwig van Daily \u2014 classical music and opera in five minutes or less <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/ludwig-van.us9.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=4f785cb3f9058f2393ccad035&amp;id=57cdb68eac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>HERE<\/em><\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canadian musicians Gabrielle Despr\u00e9s and Julia Mirzoev have advanced to the quarter-finals of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":89612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39907,17,39,63,68],"tags":[40410,40411,40412],"yst_prominent_words":[7712,7781,30859,24457,9943,7299,7549],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/Michael-Hill-Violin-Competition-Canadians.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-njl","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89611"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89614,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89611\/revisions\/89614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89611"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=89611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}