Jinjoo Cho is a Korean violinist and teacher born (in Seoul) on July 12,
1988. She is well-known as the winner of
several violin competitions around the world (2005, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2014),
the Indianapolis being the most important among them. It is the nature of competitions that in
2012, Cho entered the Queen Elizabeth (of Belgium) violin competition and did
not make it to the finals. (Igor
Pikayzen, a very successful violinist with a brilliant technique did not make the
semi-finals in that same competition (that year), although he later won other competitions. Erick
Friedman came in sixth place in the Tchaikovsky competition in 1966…, and so it
goes.) Cho has – for the most part -
studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and the Curtis Institute in
Philadelphia. Her main teachers have
been Paul Kantor (for four years), Jaime Laredo, Zakhar Bron, Arnold
Steinhardt, and Mark Steinberg. She
began her violin studies at age 5 and later attended the Korean Art
School. Cho came to the US at age 14
and enrolled at the CIM almost immediately.
In Cleveland, she also attended the Gilmour Academy, a private
(boarding) school. At age 26 (September,
2014), she won first prize in the Indianapolis International violin competition. As a result, she is performing on the Gingold
Stradivarius of 1683 (also known as the Martinelli Stradivarius), a four year
loan from the competition. Prior to
winning the Indianapolis, she had been concertizing for many years (since the
age of 16) and had gained extensive experience in orchestral work and chamber
music playing due to her attendance at various summer music camps. Her technique has been described as stunning
and her playing as being full of passion.
She has been quoted as saying: “I think the importance of music is that it
enables you to reach places in your heart that you might otherwise never reach.
It promotes soul searching. Music also helps you see part of yourself and
better understand people even in diverse situations. Once you've experienced profound art, I really
feel you are a citizen of the world. You
have a whole other means of traveling to different times and places that have
shaped lives.” Here is one YouTube video
of her playing with piano accompaniment – the seldom-heard Francis Poulenc
violin sonata.
Andrew Sords is an
American violinist and teacher born (in Newark, Delaware) on June 4, 1985. As do violinists Hilary Hahn and Joshua Bell,
Sords writes a blog to keep his wide audience informed about things related to
his career; he also writes about his unique view of many other things as
well. I will say that his website is
worth visiting for the blog alone although you will see so much more. His repertoire includes two of my favorite
and (unfortunately) seldom-played concertos – Bruch’s second concerto in d
minor and the Schumann concerto. In
fact, I think the time will come when every concert violinist will take on both
of these neglected concertos and perform them as regularly as the Brahms and
Tchaikovsky. Incidentally, the Schumann
concerto was in danger of never surfacing thanks to a low opinion of it given
to Clara Schumann (Robert Schumann’s widow) by none other than Joseph
Joachim. Sords has a very active solo
concert and chamber music career which has taken him all over the globe. He has given concerts with over 100 (different)
orchestras, including the well-known major ones, and played the most important
venues in every continent. That may well
be a record for any violinist but even those numbers, of course, will continue
to increase. Sords began to study violin
privately at about age 6. His first
teacher was Liza Grossman. However, his
first instrumental studies were actually on piano, which he still plays. He thus joins a number of concert violinists who have been quite proficient as pianists - Fritz Kreisler, Louis Persinger, Jascha Heifetz, Arthur Grumiaux, Andor Toth, Arabella Steinbacher, and Julia Fischer just to name a few. Sords later studied at the Cleveland Institute
of Music and Southern Methodist University.
His main teachers were Linda Cerone (pupil of Ivan Galamian), David
Russell, and Chee-Yun (Kim Chee Yun – pupil of Dorothy DeLay.) As do violinists Maxim Vengerov and Tai
Murray, Sords enjoys and has a deep appreciation for dancing and has even
participated in the famous “Dancing With The Stars” show for a charity benefit. He was the first classical artist to do
so. That may seem unusual but French
violinist Jean-Marie LeClair was actually a professional dancer, choreographer,
and violinist in the early 1700s. Sords
is also unique in that he plays a modern violin constructed in 1912 by Belgian
violin maker Augustine Talisse, a violin maker I had never heard of until
now. Albert Markov, Tai Murray,
Christian Tetzlaff, Giora Schmidt, Judith Ingolfsson, Pip Clarke, Ilya Kaler,
and Alina Pogostkina are among the growing number of concert violinists who are
gravitating to modern instruments which, as you may know from reading this
blog, I also favor. Sords’ performances
are typically characterized by music critics as being “utterly radiant.” You can see his Facebook page here. His most recent audio release is the New Age
music CD with composer Sean Christopher.
Jasper Wood is a Canadian concert violinist born on April 29, 1974. He first played in public at age five. He studied with David and Linda Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has been concertizing since 1996 and now teaches at the University of British Columbia. He has also recorded many CDs on various labels and there is at least one video of his playing on YouTube. I do not know if he plays a Stradivarius or a Guarnerius or some other instrument. You can look that up if you want to.
