2010 Award Winner: Benjamin Beilman, Violin
Violinist Benjamin Beilman’s “handsome technique, burnished sound and quiet confidence showed why he has come so far so fast.” (The New York Times) He is the recipient of both a 2012 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2012 London Music Masters Award. His numerous accolades have thrust him onto stages across North America and Europe as soloist with the Edmonton Symphony, L’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal under Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and the Kansas City Symphony as well as the Tonahlle Orchestra in Switzerland under Sir Neville Marriner. In addition to his Wigmore Hall solo recital debut, Mr. Beilman appears in recitals at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Merkin Concert Hall, at the Candlelight Concert Society, The Friends of Music Concerts, at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpmmern in Germany, and as part of the Rising Stars Series in Basel, Switzerland.
First Prize Winner in the 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Beilman performed debut recitals to rave reviews in the 2011-12 Young Concert Artist Series in New York, sponsored by the Summis Auspiciis Prize, and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center. He was also awarded the Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship and three performance prizes.
He has appeared as soloist with L’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec at the International Festival at Domaine Forget; with the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Hilton Head and Billings symphonies; and performed the Jennifer Higdon Violin Concerto with the South Dakota and Glens Falls symphonies. The Philadelphia Inquirer praised his Kimmel Center debut, performing the Bruch concerto “in heroically broad strokes. What a compelling performance.” Recital appearances include the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society as recipient of Philadelphia’s 2010 Musical Fund Society Career Award, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, MusicFest Vancouver and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, among others.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Beilman has multiple performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as a new member of their CMS Two roster. Additional chamber music performances this season include the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Caramoor, and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, as well as the Kronberg Academy in Germany. He has participated numerous times in the Marlboro Music Festival, and toured with “Musicians from Marlboro.” He has also appeared at Music from Angel Fire, the Verbier Festival, and on Ravinia’s “Rising Stars” series.
As First Prize Winner of the 2010 Montréal International Musical Competition and winner of the People’s Choice Award, Mr. Beilman recorded his first CD of Prokofiev’s complete sonatas for violin and piano released on Analekta in 2010. He also won the Bronze Medal at the 2010 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, where he was awarded the prize for the best Bach performance and best performance of the Mozart sonata; First Prize in the 2009 Schmidbauer and Corpus Christi International Competitions in Texas, where he was awarded the special Bach prize; the Gold Medal at the Stulberg International String Competition; the Grand Prize of the American String Teachers Association Competition in 2007 and Third Prize in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. Mr. Beilman was a winner of the Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions and the Milka/Astral Violin Prize.
Mr. Beilman made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut with conductor Rossen Milanov in June 2009, performing Beethoven’s Romance, which The Philadelphia Inquirer praised for its “emotional weight” and “distinctive, full-bodied sound.” He was a 2007 Presidential Scholar in the Arts and recipient of a Gold Award in Music from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. He has been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and “From the Top;” on WQXR’s McGraw-Hill “Young Artists Showcase;” and Chicago WFMT’s “Impromptu.”
Mr. Beilman currently works with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy in Germany, supported by the Dieter and Elisabeth Feddersen Scholarship. He graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2012, where he worked with Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank. His earlier studies were with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago.