Rodney Friend
Artistic Director
30TH JULY - 5TH AUGUST 2020
Anna Stokes
Course Manager /
PA to FIVA Artistic Director
Faculty
Masterclasses
We welcome performing participants as well as spectators (who wish to view the LIVE public masterclasses). Please join our mailing list if you wish to be notified when tickets go live on sale for the public masterclasses.
Cihat Askin
After graduating from Prof. Ayhan Turan’s class with honors degree, Cihat Askin completed his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in London at the Royal College of Music and at City University.
Upon his arrival to Turkey, he was appointed as Associate Professor in 1998 and Professor in 2006, at ITU. Under the same roof, he carried on his academic and artistic activities from 1998 to 2012, as the founder and co-chair of MIAM (Advanced Research Music Center). Askin served as the Director of Turkish Music State Conservatory of ITU in between 2008-2012.
Being a prominent figure in Turkey, he has been giving concerts across Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the USA.
He participated as a jury member in international violin competition in Bulgaria, Serbia, Poland, Israel, Hungary, Switzerland, Russia and Argentina.
Askin made the first CD recordings of Turkish composers U.C.Erkin and N.K.Akses for Kalan Muzik.
Being a noted champion and broadcaster of modern Turkish music, he made albums of his own compositions. In 2006, the first integral recording of Kreutzer 42 Etudes was released and highly acclaimed by the critics. Apart from being a performer, Askin made musical arrangements for violin and various instruments, film soundtracks, radio and TV recordings. He worked with Warner Classics and CPO. In 2007, he founded Askin Ensemble, a chamber orchestra.
In 2001, he established an educational project called Cihat Askin and Little Friends (CAKA), which aims to support young talents and develop violin education throughout Turkey. CAKA received Year’s Classical Music Event award, held by Andante 2011 Donizetti Classical Music Awards.
Among his many prizes may be mentioned, Menuhin and Flesch, he is granted the Foyer des Artistes award in 2002 and the J. F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – Gold Medal award in 2009.
Aşkın plays with violins by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (1846) and Gaetano Sgarobotto (1924).
Rodney Friend
Acclaimed internationally as one of the most distinguished British violinists of his generation, Rodney Friend has appeared worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster, director and pedagogue.
During the last sixty years, he has performed internationally as a soloist with major orchestras under conductors including Haitink, Barbirolli, Mehta, Leinsdorf, Solti, Giulini, Davis and Boult, as well as collaborating with composers Stravinsky, Britten, Walton, Bliss, Barber, Copland, Bernstein, Boulez, Hindemith, Tippett, Lutoslawski, Henze, Birtwistle, Maxwell Davies, Berio and Penderecki.
Rodney Friend made his London debut playing Sibelius concerto with the Halle Orchestra and his New York debut playing Britten concerto with the New York Philharmonic. Amongst his many recordings, his performances with the London Philharmonic of the Britten and Bach concertos for EMI received the highest critical acclaim.
In 1991 he formed the Solomon Trio with whom he toured Europe extensively, playing at such venues as La Scala Milan and recording much of the great trio literature for Carlton Records. It is however as a Concertmaster where his experience and reputation is legendary. In 1964 he became the youngest ever leader of the London Philharmonic, working closely with Bernard Haitink, Barenboim, Solti and Giulini. In 1975 he received the unique honour for a British player when he was invited by the New York Philharmonic to be their Concertmaster, playing concerts and recording worldwide with Bernstein and Boulez. It is with these two orchestras that he recorded almost the entire orchestral repertoire.
On his return to London he became concertmaster of the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Roszdestvensky and a professor and consultant of violin at the Royal College of Music, where he formed and directed The RCM String Ensemble. Later, he joined the faculty of the Royal Academy of Music as a professor of violin. Since 1990 he has worked solely in the areas of teaching, solo and chamber music. During this time, he has travelled extensively to give masterclasses and appear as a jury member for the international violin competitions. From 2012-2017, Rodney Friend was Artistic Director of the highly successful Cambridge International String Academy. His students continue to achieve success in all areas of violin playing.
In 2006 the first two volumes of his books, ‘The Orchestral Violinist’ were published by Boosey and Hawkes and received universal acclaim as being the most important works so far produced for this discipline. 2020 saw the successful launch of his book, ‘The Violin in 5ths’ by Beares Publishing.
The recipient of many awards, Rodney Friend has also received an MBE from her Majesty the Queen for services to music.
He plays a Joseph Guarnerius violin dated 1696.
Augustin Hadelich
Augustin Hadelich is one of the great violinists of our time. Often referred to by colleagues as a "musician's musician", he was named Musical America’s 2018 "Instrumentalist of the Year". Mr Hadelich will appear with over 25 North American orchestras in the 2019/2020 season, including the symphony orchestras of Boston, Cleveland, New York, Montréal, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Houston, Oregon, Seattle, Toronto, and numerous others. International highlights of the season include performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra (London), NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (Hamburg), Danish National Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, to name a few. He is also a frequent guest artist with major orchestras in the Far East, South America, Mexico, New Zealand, and Australia.
Augustin Hadelich is the winner of a 2016 Grammy Award for his recording of Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto, L’Arbre des songes, with the Seattle Symphony under Ludovic Morlot (Seattle Symphony MEDIA). Recently signed to Warner Classics, his first release on the label – Paganini’s 24 Caprices – was released in January 2018. His second recording for Warner Classics, the Brahms Concerto (with Mr. Hadelich's own cadenza) and the Ligeti Concerto (with cadenza composed by Thomas Adès) followed in 2019. A new recording Bohemian Tales, to be released this fall, will include his performance of the Dvořák Violin Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jakub Hrůša.
Born in Italy, the son of German parents, Augustin Hadelich is now an American citizen. After winning the Gold Medal at the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, concerto and recital appearances on many of the world’s top stages quickly followed. Other distinctions include an Avery Fisher Career Grant (2009); a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in the UK (2011); the inaugural Warner Music Prize (2015); as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter in the UK (2017).
Augustin Hadelich plays the violin "Leduc, ex-Szeryng" by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù of 1744, generously loaned by a patron through the Tarisio Trust.
www.augustinhadelich.com
Yuzuko Horigome
Born in Tokyo, Yuzuko Horigome began playing the piano at the age of 4 and took up the violin at the age of 5. Her first violin teacher was Ryosaku Kubota, after which she further developed her talent under the direction of Toshiya Eto, at Toho Gakuen.
In 1980, Horigome won the first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, heralding the beginning of a successful international career. Since then, she has toured the world playing concerts under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf, Sándor Végh, Herbert Blomstedt, André Prévin, Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa, Iván Fischer, Riccardo Chailly, and Simon Rattle among others.
She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Scala di Milano, Czech Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, New Japan, and NHK Symphony.
In early 2010, she performed Beethoven’s violin concerto with NHK Symphony, directed by Junichi Hirokami. Her performance, which was broadcast live by NHK, astonished critics who lauded her as the ‘best soloist’ of the year in Japan. A TV documentary called ‘Gifts For The Future’ on her social contribution was commissioned and broadcast by BS-TBS TV, in 2010.
In February 2008 she recorded three concertos by Lalo with Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, conducted by Marco Guidarini and in the autumn of 2016, Horigome played all of the Mozart Violin Concerti with the Hansjorg Schellenberger Conducting Camerata Academika Salzburg.
Horigome has worked closely with composers such as Takemitsu, Miyoshi and Yuasa, and recorded their violin concertos. She collaborated with Japanese composers such as Mochizuki, Gondai, Nodaira, Hosokawa, and Okada. During the project ‘Violin Works - Jojo no Tabi’, which was recorded live in Tokyo and Kyoto between 2005 and 2010, pieces were dedicated to her by composers such as Okada.
Horigome has recorded under labels such as Sony, Denon, Lockenhaus Edition, Camerata Tokyo, Nami Record, Talent, Dabringhaus und Grimm, René Gailly, and Pavane. Most recently, she recorded Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas, and Bruch & Brahms concerto with the Czech Philharmonic by Octavia Record.
Horigome is a passionate chamber musician and a frequent guest at festivals including Marlboro Music, Lockenhaus, Tanglewood and La Jolla. She has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Rudolf Serkin, János Starker, Martha Argerich, Nobuko Imai, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Charles Neidich, Jean-Marc Luisada, and Abdel Rahman El Bacha.
https://yuzukohorigome.com
Dong-Suk Kang
Born in Korea, Dong-Suk Kang went to New York to study at the Juilliard School and later at the Curtis Institute with Ivan Galamian.
Following a debut at the Kennedy Center and an appearance with Seiji Ozawa, he went on to win top prizes in a number of international competitions including the Montreal, the Carl Flesch in London and the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels.
Since then, he has appeared with many great orchestras of the world including those of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Baltimore, Washington and Montreal in America, and Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, BBC Orchestras, Halle, English Chamber, Academy of St. Martin’s, Birmingham, Scottish National, Munich, Stuttgart, Gewandhaus, French and Belgian National Orchestras, Gothenburg, Saint- Petersburg, Moscow, Polish National and Rotterdam in Europe.
The conductors he has worked with include Dutoit, Ozawa, Masur, Jarvi, Menuhin, Salonen, Slatkin, Chung, Barshai, Jansons, Norrington, Foster, Svetlanov, Berglund, Lazarev, Otaka and Herbig.
He has performed at major music centers and festivals throughout the world and his concerts, such as London Proms, were frequently televised and broadcast on the radio in many countries. His strong interest in chamber music has resulted in his participation at various chamber music festivals including those in Spoleto, Santa Fe, Kuhmo, Korsholm, Seattle, Vancouver, Newport and Australian Festival of Chamber Music. As a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center he has performed in New York and toured throughout the country.
In the field of recording, in addition to the well-known works, such as Vivaldi Four Seasons (with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields), he has recorded Nielsen and Elgar concertos, complete chamber music of Honegger and Alkan, and Furtwängler Sonata.
His recordings have won critical acclaim and awards among which are the Grand Prix du disque from both the Académie Charles Cros and the Nouvelle Académie du disque. His Walton Concerto CD was chosen as the CD of the month by the Gramophone magazine and nominated for the Gramophone Award.
He has served on the jury for the major international competitions : Queen Elisabeth, Indianapolis, Montreal, Wieniawski, Long-Thibaud, Menuhin,Michael Hill, Sendai, Qingdao Tibor Varga and others.
Dong-Suk Kang is the artistic director of « MusicAlp Festival » in France and the Seoul Spring Festival in Korea.
He is also « Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres », a distinction received from French Government.
So-Ock Kim
Born in Seoul in 1982, So-Ock Kim moved to London at the age of three. At 15, she was the youngest ever winner of the gold medal in the prestigious Shell/LSO Competition playing the Tchaikovsky concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra in the Barbican Hall. At 19, So-Ock was selected for the Young Concert Artists Trust.
So-Ock has given numerous critically acclaimed performances around the world and at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Barbican Hall in London. Abroad she has comprehensively toured throughout Asia, Europe and the US, performing concertos and recitals in the various international music festivals, such as Schleswig Holstein, Beethoven Festival, Ravinia, Mecklenburg, BBC Proms, Radio France Festival, Herrenchimsee, Seoul Spring, Casals and Aldeburgh. Many of her performances have been broadcast on radio and television worldwide, including the BBC, ABC, Radio France, RAI, KBS, Polish Radio and Classic FM.
So-Ock has made numerous acclaimed international performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Sofia Philharmonic, Orchestre Nationale de Montpellier, KBS Symphony, Torino Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, Mexico State, and Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestras. She has recently performed with Krzystof Penderecki and the Polish Radio Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Vassily Petrenko, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera North, City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Suwon Philharmonic, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Westdeutsche Sinfonia and the English Chamber Orchestra.
So-Ock has a keen interest in the performance of new works and has given several World Premieres that have been recorded for Universal (France and Korea) and Naxos. She is also an active chamber musician and is a violin professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Cho-Liang Lin
Cho-Liang Lin was born in Taiwan. A neighbor’s violin studies convinced this 5-year old boy to do the same. At the age twelve, he moved to Sydney to further his studies with Robert Pikler, a student of Jenő Hubay. After playing for Itzhak Perlman in a master class, the 13-year old boy decided that he must study with Mr. Perlman’s teacher, Dorothy DeLay. At the age fifteen, Lin traveled alone to New York and auditioned for the Juilliard School and spent the next six years working with Ms DeLay.
A concert career was launched in 1980 with Lin’s debut playing the Mendelssohn Concerto with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta . He has since performed as soloist with virtually every major orchestra in the world. His busy schedule on stage around the world continues to this day. However, his wide ranging interests have led him to diverse endeavors. At the age of 31, his alma mater, Juilliard School, invited Lin to become faculty. In 2006, he was appointed professor at Rice University. He is currently music director of La Jolla SummerFest and the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival. Ever so keen about education, he was music director of the Taiwan National Symphony music camp and youth orchestra for four years.
In his various professional capacities, Cho-Liang Lin has championed composers of our time. His efforts to commission new works have led a diverse field of composers to write for him. The list includes John Harbison, Christopher Rouse, Tan Dun, John Williams, Steven Stucky, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bright Sheng, Paul Schoenfield, Lalo Schifrin, Joan Tower and many more. Recently, he was soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Nashville Symphony and Royal Philharmonic.
Lin performs on the 1715 Stradivari named “Titian” or a 2000 Samuel Zygmuntowicz. His many concerto, recital and chamber music recordings on Sony Classical, Decca, BIS, Delos and Ondine can be heard on Spotify or Naxos.com. His albums have won Gramophone Record Of The Year, Grammy nominations and Penguin Guide Rosettes.
https://www.cholianglin.com
Siyeon Ryu
With a wide background ranging from Baroque to Contemporary, Siyeon Ryu draws her musical inspirations from both the classical and folk music traditions of the world.
The epitome of her musical presence is her annual ‘Siyeon Ryu's Theme Concert’ which started 2002, where the traditional boundaries of musical fusion of tango, folk, and baroque were explored under a new light of expressions. Her vivid interpretations of Piazzolla tango is captured in the album ‘Pasion, Amor & Piazzolla’ released under the Sony Label. Her recent musical interest lies in re-visitation and re-interpretation of traditional Korean folk music through her unique touch of violin, acquired through years’ of her persistent learning of Haegeum, Korea’s traditional string instrument. Her creative experiment has enchanted the audiences not only in her country but also in Germany and U.K.
Dr. Ryu completed the recital debut in 1995 at the Royal Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Her professional experience began by touring the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria, Spain, Germany, and Poland. In 2008, 2009 and 2014, she successfully participated in recitals of the Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusik Saal under the auspices of the Greenpeace International. Moreover, she frequently attends Cambridge International String Academy every summer as a professor and performer.
As for her educational background, her undergraduate studies started at Seoul National University and completed at the Curtis Institute of Music. She received her Artist Diploma from the Royal College of Music in London and Master’s degree from Yale University, then she completed her education with doctorate degree at the State University of New York.
She found early success as a grand prize winner in the series of national competitions such as Korea Times Concours, the Ewha & Kyunghyang Concours. At the age of 17, she won the very renowned Dong-A Daily News Music Competition, and was awarded the ‘Young Musician Honor’ by the Governor of Seoul Metropolitan City. In 1995, she was also a leader of Yale’s Resident String Quartet.
Dr. Ryu has been a professor at SookMyung Women’s University since 2000 and without a doubt, an outstanding concert violinist and an enthusiastic pioneer of violin repertoire through out her musical life.
https://www.siyeonryu.com
Joel Smirnoff
Conductor, violinist and pedagogue Joel Smirnoff, a native of New York City, performed on four continents over 23 years as member of the Juilliard String Quartet, joining as second violin in 1986 and replacing the legendary Robert Mann as first violin in 1997. In addition to his Grammy-nominated SONY disks with the Juilliard Quartet, Mr. Smirnoff also has an extensive catalog of solo recordings, including the world premiere recordings of numerous 20th century works by composers as diverse as Louis Gruenberg and Joan Tower. Mr. Smirnoff served as President of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 2008 until 2016.
In 1983, as second-prize winner of the International American Music Competition for Violin, Mr. Smirnoff was awarded debuts at Carnegie Hall on its Emerging Artists series and at Town Hall on its Midtown Masters series. Mr. Smirnoff was concerto soloist in summer of 1998 at Tanglewood, performing the Berg Violin Concerto under the direction of Bernard Haitink in a special memorial concert dedicated to violinist Louis Krasner.
Encouraged by Seiji Ozawa to “take up the baton,” Mr. Smirnoff developed into a highly acclaimed conductor with an impressive and wide-ranging repertoire. Presented by Maestro Ozawa at the Bernstein Memorial Concert of 1998 at Tanglewood, Mr. Smirnoff made his official American conducting debut with the San Francisco Symphony in July, 2000, conducting an all-Tchaikovsky program. Engagements quickly followed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Chicago Philharmonic, the New World Symphony and others. In Europe, Mr. Smirnoff has led the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Basel Sinfonietta and the Kuopio (Finland) Symphony; in Japan, the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Matsumoto, in Korea, the Busan Festival Orchestra and in China, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Smirnoff received the Lifetime Grammy Award in 2011 for his many recordings with the Juilliard String Quartet and was honored that same year with the Alumni Professional Achievement Award from the University of Chicago, his Alma Mater.
As music educator, Mr. Smirnoff has served on the chamber music faculty of The Juilliard School since 1986 and on the violin faculty since 1989, serving as Chair of the Violin Faculty from 1992 until 2008. A long time faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Festival, Mr. Smirnoff was conducting assistant to Maestro Seiji Ozawa and Head of String Studies from 1995-2000. Mr. Smirnoff has served on the juries of the Naumburg, Seoul, Bartok, Indianapolis and Sendai Violin Competitions.
Mr. Smirnoff also plays jazz and has appeared frequently as improvising violinist with the great jazz singer Tony Bennett in concert on and on TV. His improvised solo on “Fly Me to the Moon” can be seen on “Tony Bennett Live by Request” and two improvised jazz solos can be heard on the Grammy award-winning CD “Tony Bennett Sings Ellington Hot and Cool”. He has also been guest soloist with Gunther Schuller and the American Jazz Orchestra, and the Billy Taylor Trio.
Mr. Smirnoff was born into an eminent New York musical family. His mother sang with the Jack Teagarden Band under the stage name of Judy Marshall and his father, Zelly Smirnoff, played in the NBC Symphony under Toscanini, performed and recorded with the Bach Aria Group and was second violinist of the Stuyvesant String Quartet.
Pinchas Zukerman
With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today's most sought after and versatile musicians - violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. He is renowned as a virtuoso, admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty of tone, and impeccable musicianship, which can be heard throughout his discography of over 100 albums for which he gained two Grammy® awards and 21 nominations.
Highlights of the 2019-2020 season include tours with the Vienna Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as guest appearances with the Boston, Dallas and Prague Symphonies, Berlin Staatskapelle, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In his fifth season as Artist-in-Residence of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, he tours with the ensemble to China and Korea, and recently premiered Avner Dorman’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, written for Zukerman and cellist Amanda Forsyth. Subsequent performances of the important new work take place at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony, Ottawa with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, where Zukerman serves as Conductor Emeritus, and with the Israel Philharmonic. In chamber music, he travels with the Zukerman Trio for performances throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia, and joins longtime friend and collaborator Daniel Barenboim for a cycle of the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano, presented in a three-concert series in Berlin.
A devoted teacher and champion of young musicians, he has served as chair of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music for over 25 years, and has taught at prominent institutions throughout the United Kingdom, Israel, China and Canada, among others. As a mentor he has inspired generations of young musicians who have achieved prominence in performing, teaching, and leading roles with music festivals around the globe. Mr. Zukerman has received honorary doctorates from Brown University, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of Calgary, as well as the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan. He is a recipient of the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence in Classical Music.