Anna Tifu is a Romanian (some would say Italian) violinist born (in
Cagliari, Italy) on January 1, 1986. (Cagliari
is the capital of Sardinia, a large island off the western coast of
Italy.) She is known for having studied
and spent most of her career in Italy.
She was widely recognized as a child prodigy from the age of eight. Her first teacher was her father at age
6. She made such fast progress that by
age 8 she had won the Vittorio Veneto competition with a first prize. (Vittorio Veneto is a small city in northern
Italy, situated 60 miles north of Venice, not far from the southern Austrian
border.) At age 11 Tifu made her first
solo appearance with orchestra. At age 12,
she played the Bruch g minor concerto at the famous La Scala opera house in
Milan. She graduated from the Cagliari
Music Conservatory at age 15. Tifu
studied further with Salvatore Accardo in Italy and with Aaron Rosand (2005 to
2008) in the U.S. Later still, she
studied in Paris also. Along the way,
she won violin competitions in Italy and Romania. It is possible that Tifu stopped taking
lessons when she turned 24 years old but I am not sure about that, although it
can be said that Tifu has been concertizing since age 11. For some time, her violin was the Berthier
Stradivarius from 1716 but I do not know if she is still playing it. She has also played Paganini’s Cannone 1743
Guarnerius. Here is a YouTube video of
Tifu playing Chausson’s Poeme. Here is a
link to a nice article about Paganini’s violin.
