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 Clara-Jumi Kang, Germany/South Korea
Clara-Jumi Kang started violin and piano lessons at the age of three and entered the Mannheim Musikhochschule at the age of four. At the age of seven, she auditioned at The Juilliard School where she was accepted with a full scholarship. Her numerous prizes in international competitions include First Prize at the 2010 Sendai International Violin Competition, Second Prize at the 2009 Hannover International Violin Competition, and First Prize at the 2009 Seoul International Violin Competition. Clara-Jumi is currently studying under Nam Yun Kim at the Korean National University of Arts where she was accepted as one of the youngest college students.
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 Soyoung Yoon, South Korea
Soyoung Yoon received her first violin lesson at the age of five in her native South Korea. Soyoung was a prizewinner at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. She also received Grand Prize at the Odessa International David Oistrakh Violin Competition and First Prize at the Menuhin International Violin Competition in 2002. Soyoung has toured as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Asia and Europe. Previously a student at the Musikhochschule Köln, she is currently studying at the Zurich University of Arts in Switzerland.
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 Benjamin Beilman, United States
Benjamin Beilman has appeared as a guest soloist with the Philadelphia, Detroit, and New Mexico symphony orchestras and is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. He won First Prize at the 2010 Montreal International Music Competition, First Prize and the Bach Prize at the 2009 Corpus Christi International String Competition, and was the Gold Medalist at the 2007 Stulberg International String Competition. A featured artist at the Marlboro Music Festival since age 17, he joins Musicians from Marlboro on tour in 2011. Benjamin currently attends The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
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 Haoming Xie, China
Haoming began studying violin at six and was admitted to Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 2008. He has won numerous awards including Second Prize at the China National Violin Competition and Fourth Prize at the Qingdao International Violin Competition. Haoming has soloed with orchestras throughout China and abroad. In 2009, Haoming performed in Brussels to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.
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 Antal Szalai, Hungary
A native of Hungary, Antal Szalai first began his violin studies at the age of five. Since then, Antal has performed with such orchestras as the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic among many others. At age 15, he was invited to perform for the gala concert to celebrate Yehudi Menuhin's 80th birthday. Antal will make his Viennese debut in 2010 at the famed Musikverein with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Szalai was a Laureate at the Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition and First Prize winner at both the Lipizer and Valsesia Musicale international violin competitions.
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 Andrey Baranov, Russia
Andrey Baranov was born in Leningrad and began studying violin at the age of five. The recipient of numerous competition prizes, Andrey won Second Prize in the Sendai International Violin Competition, First Prize at the Benjamin Britten International Violin Competition, and First Prize at the Marteau International Violin Competition. Andrey has performed with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic in London among others. Andrey studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and is currently enrolled at the Conservatory in Lausanne, Switzerland where he is an assistant to Pierre Amoyal. Andrey performs on a violin by Andrea Guarneri (1682).
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 Augustin Hadelich, Germany
Gold medalist of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Augustin Hadelich has established himself as a commanding and unique voice among the new generation of violinists. Articulate and stylistically convincing throughout the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary repertoires, his versatility is astonishing. In the words of The Strad magazine, "...the evening closed with a performance worth waiting for. Hadelich showed his superlative musicianship in a daring performance of Mozart's lesser-known Concerto No. 2, in which he presented cadenzas of striking originality."
In January 2008, Augustin Hadelich will make his Carnegie Hall orchestral debut, performing Brahms Double Concerto under Miguel Harth-Bedoya, with cellist Alban Gerhardt and the Fort Worth Symphony. This will be followed by his Carnegie Hall solo recital debut on March 28, 2008 in Stern Auditorium. At Lincoln Center in November 2007, Mr. Hadelich will present a solo recital at the Reade Theater. Later that season he will perform in collaboration with Midori at the Rose Theater in May 2008.
Other upcoming and recent performances include appearances with the symphonies of Charlotte, Chautauqua, Columbus (OH), Fort Worth, Grand Rapids, Greenville, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Louisiana, Louisville, Portland (ME), and Santa Barbara, as well as the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Hadelich will be collaborating with renowned conductors such as Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Gunter Herbig, Christoph Poppen, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern and Mario Venzago. Outside the U.S., engagements have included the Capetown Philharmonic, Dresdner Philharmonie, Museumsorchester Frankfurt, Orquestra Sinfonica do Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro (Brazil), Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, and the chamber orchestras of Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg, Kiel, Lucerne, Pforzheim and Toulouse.
The 2007-2008 season will also mark Mr. Hadelich's professional recording debut with four CDs: the complete solo violin sonatas of Telemann and the complete violin concerti of Franz Josef Haydn for Naxos; the Tchaikovsky concerto with the Saarbrücken Radio Orchestra under Christoph Poppen; and a recital CD with pianist Robert Kulek on the award-winning label AVIE.
Born in Italy in 1984, the son of German parents, Augustin Hadelich holds a diploma (summa cum laude) from the Instituto Mascagni in Livorno, Italy, and a graduate diploma from The Juilliard School, where he studies with Joel Smirnoff. He has been a participant at the Marlboro and Ravinia festivals and in numerous master classes with renowned violinists such as Uto Ughi, Christoph Poppen, Norbert Brainin, Pinchas Zukerman, Zakhar Bron, Yehudi Menuhin and Miriam Fried.
In 1999, Mr. Hadelich almost lost his life in a fire at the family's farm in Italy. His successful return to the concert stage after many operations and months of painful recovery is a testament to his remarkable talent and indomitable spirit.
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 Simone Lamsma, The Netherlands
Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma has been described by conductor Jaap van Zweden as one of the leading violinists in the world. She is rapidly establishing herself as a much sought after soloist and recitalist performing with leading orchestras and conductors worldwide. This season, engagement highlights will include debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Walton/Luisi), Orchestre National de France (Bernstein Serenade/van Zweden), Lucerne Symphony (Khachaturian/Gaffigan), Utah Symphony (Mendelssohn/Thierry Fischer), Hong Kong Philharmonic (Britten/van Zweden), Copenhagen Philharmonic (Bernstein Serenade/Mandeal), and São Paolo Symphony (Shostakovich 1/Tortelier). Return engagements include performing twice with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic (Gubaidulina 2/de Leeuw and Korngold/Gaffigan), Dallas Symphony (Mendelssohn/van Zweden), Bournemouth Symphony (Beethoven/Karabits) and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Bruch and Shostakovich 1/Shelley).
Recent season successes included performances with the Orchestra Suisse Romande (Shostakovich 1/ Janowski), St Louis Symphony (Shostakovich 1/van Zweden), Seoul Philharmonic (Shostakovich 1/Gaffigan), National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven/Tortelier), Netherlands Radio Philharmonic (Britten/van Zweden and Szymanowksi/Segerstam), Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic (Mendelssohn/van Zweden), Rotterdam Philharmonic (Sibelius/Valcuha and Ravel Tzigane & Massenet Meditation/Nezet-Seguin), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Elgar/Hill and Shostakovich 1/Tortelier), and the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra (play/direct Vivaldi's Four Seasons).
In the USA, Ms Lamsma made her debut with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra in 2009 and since then has performed regularly throughout the States. Engagement highlights include regular appearances with the Dallas Symphony where she will return for the third time this season, St Louis Symphony (Shostakovich 1/van Zweden) and the Utah Symphony (Mendelssohn/Fischer).
As recitalist, her invitations included a highly successful and prestigious recital in the Main Hall of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in May 2011 with live, national radio broadcast. She also performed recitals throughout the Netherlands, Italy and for the Rio de Janeiro Sala Cecilia series (taking over a cancellation from Vadim Repin) with Robert Kulek and Valentina Lisitsa as chamber music partners.
Other highlights included national broadcasts on Dutch television of her performance featuring Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No.1 with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic conducted by Jaap van Zweden as well as a 40-minute documentary about Ms Lamsma's life as a musician produced by NPS (Dutch national television). In April 2011 Ms Lamsma was invited to perform for HMH Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands, playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic - a concert that was broadcast nationally on Dutch television. In 2006 Ms Lamsma's debut recital disc for the Naxos label, featuring works by Edward Elgar, was released to great critical acclaim and was featured as "Instrumental and Chamber Disc of the Month" in Classic FM Magazine. Her second disc for Naxos, a recording of violin concertos by Louis Spohr with Sinfonia Finlandia also received a similar critical response.
Ms Lamsma started her violin studies at the age of 5 in The Netherlands, and moved to the UK aged 11 to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Professor Hu Kun and the Royal Academy of Music in London with Professor Maurice Hasson. As the youngest student ever to enter the Royal Academy of Music's Bachelor of Music programme, Ms Lamsma graduated from the Royal Academy aged 19 with first class honours and several prestigious awards. In 2011, she was made an Associate of the RAM, an honour given to those students who have made significant and distinguished contributions to their field.
Enormously successful in international violin competitions, Ms Lamsma won the 2nd Prize during the prestigious International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (2006), and was 1st Prize winner of the China International Violin Competition (2005), the Benjamin Britten International Violin Competition (2004) and the Dutch National Violin Competition 2003. In 2010 she was awarded the national Dutch VSCD Classical Music Prize in the category 'New Generation Musicians', awarded by the Association of Dutch Theatres and Concert Halls to artists that have made remarkable and valuable contributions to the Dutch classical music scene. She was also awarded the 'Golden Violin' Prize, a triennial prize given to a classical artist who has made outstanding contributions to the classical music scene of the Northern Netherlands.
Ms Lamsma plays the "ex Chanot-Chardon" Stradivarius (labelled Cremona 1718), on generous loan to her by an anonymous benefactor. Simone Lamsma's official website is www.simonelamsma.com/
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 Celeste Golden, United States
Celeste Golden made her orchestral debut at age eleven at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas. Since then, she has performed with numerous orchestras around the world, including the Latvian Chamber Orchestra (Riga, Latvia), the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia in Brussels, Belgium, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival Sinfonia Orchestra, American Academy of Conducting Orchestra and the Waco Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Golden has taken prizes at several national and international competitions. She won first place in the solo competition as well as the Grand Prize of the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, and third prize at the Irving Klein Competition. In 2005, Ms. Golden was the winner of the Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition, the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition, third prize winner of the Ima Hogg International Music Competition in Houston, Texas, and a semifinalist of the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Belgium). Other prizes have included those at the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, Corpus Christi Young Artists' Competition, Dallas Music Teacher's Association Symphonic Festival (First Prize 1995, '96, '97, '98; Grand Prize winner, 2000), Lennox Young Artists Competition, Juanita Miller Youth Competition and Sunray Music Festival.
In 1999, Ms. Golden was the youngest member of the New York String Orchestra Seminar, later becoming concertmaster of the 2005 NYSOS with concerts at Carnegie Hall. She has collaborated in concert with such musicians as Arnold Steinhardt, Akira Eguchi, Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo. In 2004, she won a three-year fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival and School. She was subsequently awarded the Dorothy DeLay Memorial Fellowship by the festival, an award given to only one violin student each summer.
Ms. Golden is a member of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee under conductor Michael Stern. She received a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with David Cerone and Paul Kantor. After beginning her musical studies at the age of three, she studied with Arkady Fomin. She was accepted into The Curtis Institute of Music at the age of fifteen as a student of Jaime Laredo and Ida Kavafian. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Curtis in 2005.
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 Yura Lee, South Korea
Born in South Korea in 1985, violinist/violist Yura Lee has enjoyed an exceptional career since coming to the United States in 1994. In recent seasons she has appeared with many prestigious orchestras, among them the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic and the Monte Carlo Philharmonic, among many others. The 1999-2000 season saw her Carnegie Hall debut with the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, following subscription concerts in Washington, D.C.
An acclaimed young artist, Ms. Lee was presented with an Avery Fisher Career Grant in April 2007, a $25,000 prize designed to give professional assistance and recognition to rising young instrumentalists. In 2006 Ms. Lee was selected for the Pro Musicis International Award. That year Ms. Lee also won prizes at several of the world's leading international competitions. She took First Prize in the Leopold Mozart Competition where she was also awarded the Mozart Prize, Mozart Medal, Jugendjury Prize, and the Public Prize; she was the Fourth Prize Laureate in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis; and just weeks after "The Indianapolis", was the Second Prize winner in the Premio Paganini Competition in Italy. Ms. Lee received the "Debut Artist of the Year" prize at the 1997 Performance Today awards given by National Public Radio.
An earnest chamber musician, Ms. Lee has performed on and been re-engaged at some of the world's major festivals including the Verbier, Salzburg, Caramoor, Aspen, Music from Angel Fire, Ravinia, Vail and Marlboro festivals. In 2002-2003, Ms. Lee was nominated and represented by Carnegie Hall for its ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) series. For this series, Ms. Lee gave recitals at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall and at nine celebrated concert halls in Europe including London's Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She currently performs as a member of the Koryo String Quartet, Boston Artists Ensemble, New York City's Metropolis Ensemble, and the International Sejong Soloists.
Major media outlets have featured Ms. Lee on appearances such as the "Late Show with David Letterman," CNN/fN, "Fox on Arts," WABC-TV in New York, KBS in South Korea and ZDF Arte in Germany. She also made a special musical appearance on the acclaimed HBO series "Oz."
Yura Lee began her violin studies at age four with Nam-Yun Kim in Seoul, Korea. Her extraordinary talent was quickly recognized when, at age five, she won a top prize at the prestigious Hankook Ilbo Competition in Seoul. Two years later she made her debut with Korea's leading orchestra, the KBS Symphony, performing Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1. From 1994 to 2001, Ms. Lee studied at The Juilliard School of Music, under the late Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang. During the summers of 1995-2000 she was a full scholarship student at the Aspen Music School. In 2001 and 2002 she participated at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia. From 2001-2005, Ms. Lee studied with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss at Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
Yura Lee plays the 1778 Joseph and Antonio Gagliano violin, on loan from the Ravinia Festival in Chicago.
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 Ye-Eun Choi, South Korea
A native of Seoul, South Korea, Ye-Eun Choi began studying the violin at six years of age. Her primary instructor was Nam-Yun Kim at the Korean National University of Arts Pre-College Program. Since 2005, Ye-Eun has been studying with Ana Chumachenko at the München Musik Hochschule. Recognized for her virtuosity and musical maturity, the promising young violinist has received high acclaim for her performances in concert and at competitions worldwide.
Ye-Eun has received numerous awards and prizes at several prestigious competitions. At just twelve years old, Ye-Eun won First Prize at the competition of the Seoul Baroque Chamber Orchestra in 2000. She was awarded scholarships from Ishikawa Music Academy (Japan) in 2002 and the "Anne-Sophie Mutter Circle of Friends Foundation" in 2005. At the 2003 Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition (Germany), where she was the youngest participant, Ye-Eun captured Second Prize. Recently she was awarded the Second Prize at the 2006 Montreal International Musical Competition, and was the Fifth Laureate and the youngest prizewinner in the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.
Ye-Eun has performed as a soloist with several orchestras, including the Münchner Rundfunk Orchestra, Trondheim Soloists, Kuhmo Chamber Orchestra (Finland), the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the China Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul Baroque Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed at European festivals including at the Rheingau Music Festival in Germany, the Asiago Festival in Italy and the Verbier Festival & Academy in Switzerland. During the 2006-2007 season she performed the Bach Double Concerto with Anne Sophie-Mutter in both Münich and in Frankfurt. She will perform with her again in Dresden in September 2007.
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 Bella Hristova, Bulgaria
In June 1999, at age thirteen, violinist Bella Hristova arrived in the United States from her native Bulgaria to study under Stephen Shipps at the Meadowmount School of Music in New York state. Mr. Shipps immediately recognized Bella's extraordinary charisma and musical abilities following performances at the International Kocian Competition in the Czech Republic, including a work by twentieth-century Bulgarian composer Pancho Vladigerov. By far the youngest among an international group of young professionals at Meadowmount, she played in a concert of the complete Solo Sonatas of Belgian violin virtuoso Eugene Ysaÿe, an event showcased by Strad Magazine.
Bella Hristova was born, to musical parents, in the small commercial and manufacturing city of Pleven, Bulgaria in 1985. Her mother, a school choral conductor and piano teacher, gave her encouragement and a quarter-size violin, with lessons starting at age six. With natural self-assurance to complement exceptional talent, she played for a live television audience only months later. By age eleven she was regularly taking the train to Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, for study with Joseph Radionov, developing a dexterous technique and mastering repertory. In 1998, playing Prokofiev, she participated in master classes of Ruggiero Ricci at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She decided to stay in the United States and continue musical studies with Shipps at the University of Michigan School of Music while completing high school in Ann Arbor. Setting out on a career path, four appearances as concerto soloist with the Ann Arbor Symphony were sold out. Broadening the musical experience, eminent pianist Martin Katz coached her chamber music skills. On return to the International Kocian Competition, judges awarded her First Prize in 2000 and the sweep of Grand Prize, European Union Prize and Barenreiter Prize in 2001. Becoming a remarkably well-rounded musician, her repertory stretches fearlessly from Bach to the latest contemporary compositions. Favorites include nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian works, a heritage through her late father, a composer himself. In September 2003, at seventeen, Ms. Hristova entered The Curtis Institute of Music where she studies violin with Ida Kavafian and chamber music with Steve Tenenbom.
Audiences from the Caribbean to the Pacific Northwest have already heard the blossoming artistry of Bella Hristova's violin playing. In 2002 she appeared before a capacity crowd of 11,000 at the Tanglewood Music Festival on a radio broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. The Ann Arbor, Illinois, Indianapolis, Redding (CA), Olympia (WA), Wyoming, and Ashland (OH) Symphony Orchestras have featured her as concerto soloist. She has been a guest on Christopher O'Riley's radio program, From the Top, and was invited by him to appear in the inaugural (2004) International Young Artists Music Festival on Hilton Head Island of which he is artistic director. In 2005 she was re-engaged for a second season. Other recent engagements include a Grand Teton Festival debut, concerto performance with the University of South Carolina Orchestra, a fifth concerto appearance with the Ann Arbor Symphony, returns to the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion in 2004 and 2006. In 2005 she made her debut at the New Hampshire Music Festival, performing Astor Piazolla's Four Seasons. In 2006 Bella was featured in the May issue of O, the Oprah Magazine and won the Sixth Place Prize at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Most recently she was named the First Prize winner of the 4th Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand.
Bella Hristova plays a 1655 Amati, once owned by the famous violinist Louis Krasner, on permanent loan.
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