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.
Judith Ingolfsson is an Icelandic violinist and
teacher born (in Reykjavik, Iceland) on May 13, 1973. From her home base in Germany, she leads a
very busy international career and is well-known for being the Gold Medalist at
the 1998 Indianapolis International Violin Competition, now considered one of
the top three violin competitions in the world, on a par with the Queen
Elizabeth and Tchaikovsky violin competitions, though these last two have been
in existence far longer. In 1999, she was named Debut Artist of the Year by National Public Radio
(USA.) In 2000, she toured the U.S. as
soloist with the Iceland Symphony, culminating with highly acclaimed
performances in Carnegie Hall (New York) and the Kennedy Center in Washington
D.C. WQXR (New York) and Chamber Music
America gave her their Record Award for her debut CD in 2001. She has toured throughout the world,
appearing with almost every major orchestra, every major conductor, and in
every important venue. Her playing has
been described as being “rock solid, marvelously precise, and very
elegant.” Ingolfsson began her violin
studies at age 3 (same age as Jascha Heifetz when he began) and had performed
in public by age 5. Her first violin
teacher was Jon Sen, concertmaster of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. In 1980, her family immigrated to the
U.S. She was 7 years old. She made her orchestral debut in Germany at
age 8, playing Bach’s A minor concerto. At
the age of 14, she entered the Curtis Institute where her main teacher was the
famous violin pedagogue Jascha Brodsky (pupil of Lucien Capet, Eugene Ysaye,
and Efrem Zimbalist.) Prior to that, she
had a number of different teachers due to the fact that her family lived in
various States before settling in Philadelphia.
It is fascinating that Guila Bustabo (a concert violinist who had the dubious
distinction of having been arrested by General George C. Patton right after the end of World War Two) was one of her teachers. Carol Glenn and Josef Gingold were also among her teachers during that time. After graduation from Curtis, she studied
further at the Cleveland Institute of Music under David Cerone and Donald
Weilerstein. In addition to her concert
and recital engagements, Ingolfsson plays at a number of music festivals around
the world, including the well-known Barge Music series in New York, the Spoleto
Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Reykjavik Arts Festival, Juniper Music
Festival (Utah), and the Aigues-Vives en Musiques Festival in France -
Aigues-Vives is a small city in southern France, perhaps no more than 60 miles
from the Spanish border. Her chamber
music concerts have included performances with the Miami String Quartet, the
Vogler String Quartet, the Avalon String Quartet, and the Chamber Music Society
of Lincoln Center. Ingolfsson has
already appeared with over 100 different orchestras throughout the world, in
addition to numerous television and radio broadcasts for PBS, CBS, and NHK (in
Japan.) She was appointed to the faculty
of the University of Colorado (Boulder) in August of 2006 but soon moved to the
Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Stuttgart (State University of
Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart) in Germany in October of 2008. Her recital accompanist is usually (Russian
concert pianist and conductor) Vladimir Stoupel, with whom she formed a duo
(the Ingolfsson-Stoupel Duo) in 2006. Ingolfsson
has played the Gingold Stradivarius of 1683 (also known as the Martinelli
Strad), a 1750 Lorenzo Guadagnini, and a modern violin by French luthier Yair Hod Fainas, constructed for her in 2010.
I have heard the Gingold and the Guadagnini up close for hours and both
are great-sounding violins. The Fainas violin
I have not yet heard but I am willing to bet it has a gorgeous sound, as good a
sound as the best Stradivari violins. (I
admit I much prefer new violins to old.)
Ingolfsson has been recording commercially since 1999. Her abundantly-praised recording of the
Tchaikovsky concerto can be found here. You
can also find out why her recent recording of the Ysaye Solo Sonatas has been
so highly acclaimed here. A wonderful
YouTube video of Ingolfsson in performance can be seen (and heard) here. The photo is by Michael Rosenthal, taken
during a piano trio performance.
