VC Artist Stella Chen is the inaugural recipient of the Robert Levin Award from Harvard University, where she was mentored and inspired by Robert Levin. Her teachers and mentors have included Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Miriam Fried, Li Lin, and Catherine Cho. She received her doctorate from the Juilliard School, where she was recently appointed to the College and Pre-College Division Faculty. She also serves as Visiting Assistant Professor at the Shenandoah Conservatory and is on the faculty of the Nume Festival and Academy in Cortona, Italy.

Stella performs on the "General Kyd" 1720 Stradivarius, generously on loan from Dr. Ryuji Ueno and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.

The post VC 20 Questions with Violinist Stella Chen appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.

Ann Setzer received her M.M. degree under a fellowship at the Juilliard School and her D.M.A. at SUNY-Stony Brook where she was granted a quartet fellowship.

Her teachers have included Sally Thomas and Roman Totenberg, as well as Josef Gingold, Earl Carlyss, Gilbert Kalish and Timothy Eddy for chamber music studies. She has appeared as soloist and in recital throughout the U.S. and has given extensive chamber music performances in the U.S. and Europe.

She has performed as a guest artist on WQXR and has given workshops and master classes across the Northeast. Ms. Setzer served as a teaching assistant to Ivan Galamian at Meadowmount and in New York City.

She is currently on the faculties of the Julliard School Pre-College Division, the Mannes College of Music and is an Artist Faculty member at the Third Street Music School in New York City.

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The Violin Channel recently caught up with violinist and pedagogue Paul Kantor for a fun game of 20 Questions.

Paul Kantor is currently the Sally Shepherd Perkins Professor of Violin at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University having previously served as the Eleanor H. Biggs Distinguished Professor of Violin at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard studying violin with Dorothy DeLay and chamber music with Robert Mann. For thirteen years he served as Chair of the String Department at the University of Michigan and has taught at the Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory, and Yale University. He continues as Artist in Residence at the Glenn Gould School of Music/ Royal Conservatory of Music since his appointment in 2008. Along with his son, violinist Timothy Kantor, he founded and directs the Gabriel Del Orbe Violin Program in the Dominican Republic.

Additionally, he has presented master classes at the Starling-Delay Symposium, Indiana University, the Eastman School, the University of Southern California and the New World Symphony, among others. His students consistently win major awards at important violin competitions including the Indianapolis, Montreal, Stulberg, Buenos Aires, Klein, and Fischoff.

Paul Kantor is now on faculty at the Meadowmount School of Music. For 37 years, he was on the Artist/Faculty of the Aspen Music Festival & School where he was concertmaster of both the Festival Orchestra and the Chamber Symphony. He has performed as soloist with numerous symphony orchestras as well as serving as concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and the Great Lakes Festival Orchestra. Kantor was a member of The New York and Lenox string quartets, the Berkshire Chamber Players and the National Musical Arts Chamber Ensemble in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Kantor has performed the world premieres of Dan Welcher’s Violin Concerto, (subsequently recorded with Larry Rachleff and Symphony II) as well as John Corigliano’s “Red Violin Caprices”. His recordings can be found on the labels of Equilibrium, CRI, Delos and Mark Records. In 2014 he was honored with the Artist Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association.

He is married to pianist Virginia Weckstrom.

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Estonian violinist Hans Christian Aavik was the First Prize Winner at the 2022 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, and he has been the recipient of numerous other awards, including the Usedom Prize, the Annual Award of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, and the “Musician of the year” title from the Association of Estonian Professional Musicians.

In 2021, he released his debut album AETERNUS with pianist Karolina Aavik. A graduate of the Frankfurt Music Academy of Music and Arts, Aavik is currently a student at the Kronberg Academy. His teachers include Julian Rachlin, Evgeny Sinaiski, and Erik Schumann.

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VC Artists and sisters Hina and Fiona have performed together since their childhood as Suzuki violin students and have continued to collaborate as both have pursued individual careers.

The sisters are represented by Arabella Arts for general management, and on November 28, they will release their debut duo album Dear To Us on the Pentatone label.

Hina was the First Prize winner at the 2023 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, and her 2025–26 season includes solo appearances with the Binghamton Philharmonic, the Atlantic Classical, and Boston’s Bach, Beethoven & Brahms Society, while continuing her collaborations with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. She performs on the 1722 Stradivari “Lord Wandsworth” violin, on loan from the Ryuji Ueno Foundation, and she is currently a student at Columbia University and the Juilliard School, where her teachers include Midori Goto and Itzhak Perlman.

Fiona was a recipient of the 2022 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund and a career grant from Salon De Virtuosi. At age sixteen, she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic. Fiona studies with Ilya Kaler at the Cleveland Institute of Music and was previously a student of Professor Itzhak Perlman in the Juilliard Pre-College Division.

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VC Artist Matthew Lipman won top prizes at competitions including the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the Washington, Johansen and Stulberg International String Competitions, and he was a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. He has performed as a soloist with ensembles including the Minnesota Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and his recital appearances include venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Aspen Music Festival.

An avid chamber musician, Lipman holds the Susan and Ken Wallach Endowed Chair at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, an appointment of which he was the first recipient. A graduate of the Juilliard School and the Kronberg Academy, where he studied with Heidi Castleman and Tabea Zimmermann, Lipman is currently on the faculty of Stony Brook University.

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The Violin Channel recently caught up with VC Artist cellist Zlatomir Fung, who is currently on faculty at The Juilliard School. We sat him down for a game of 20 questions to hear his perspectives on music-making and life.

VC Artist Zlatomir Fung won First Prize at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division, and he has since appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, and the Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle, Milwaukee, Utah, Rochester, and Kansas City Symphonies.

Additionally, he served as Artist-in-Residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2023–2024 season. Fung won top prizes in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Astral National Auditions, the Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition, the George Enescu International Cello Competition, and the 2015 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, and he was selected as a 2016 US Presidential Scholar for the Arts. Fung is currently on the faculty of his alma mater, The Juilliard School.

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This Saturday, January 29, 2022, Kuusisto will perform with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at New York's Carnegie Hall. In the ensemble's season-opening concert, Kuusisto will play Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5.

The concert will commence at 8:00 PM EST, with a 20% discount available to all VC readers: VCH37720.

As a conductor in addition to violinist, Kuusisto serves as the Artistic Director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and Artistic Partner with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

He is also a Collaborative Partner of the San Francisco Symphony, and Artistic Best Friend of Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In the 2021/22 season, he is the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Featured Artist.

Kuusisto recently secured the use of the Antonio Stradivari Golden Period c.1709 ‘Scotta’ violin, generously loaned by a patron through Tarisio.

The post VC 20 Questions with Violinist Pekka Kuusisto appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.

We sat him down for a fun game of VC 20 Questions – to help gain some fascinating insight into the man behind the music.

The post MEET THE PROS | Conductor Kent Nagano – VC 20 Questions [INTERVIEW] appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.

We sat him down for a fun game of VC 20 Questions – to help gain some fun insight into the man behind the music.

The post MEET THE PROS | Violist VC Artist Matthew Lipman – VC 20 Questions [INTERVIEW] appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.

We sat him down for a fun game of VC 20 Questions – to help gain some fun insight into the man behind the music.

Lynn sadly passed away last week – aged 76.

The post MEET THE PROS | Cellist Lynn Harrell – VC 20 Questions [INTERVIEW] appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.

We sat her down for a fun game of VC 20 Questions – to help gain some fascinating insight into the lady behind the legend.

The post MEET THE PROS | Violist Kim Kashkashian – VC 20 Questions [INTERVIEW] appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.

We sat her down for a fun game of VC 20 Questions – to help gain some fascinating insight into the lady behind the legend.

The post MEET THE PROS | Violist Tabea Zimmermann – VC 20 Questions [INTERVIEW] appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.

We sat him down for a fun game of VC 20 Questions – to help gain some fascinating insight into the man behind the music.

The post MEET THE PROS | Violist Roberto Diaz – VC 20 Questions [INTERVIEW] appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.

We sat him down for a fun game of VC 20 Questions – to help gain some fascinating insight into the man behind the music.

The post MEET THE PROS | Cellist Joel Krosnick – VC 20 Questions [INTERVIEW] appeared first on World's Leading Classical Music Platform.