Gwendolyn Masin - Violinist

Gwendolyn Masin is the descendant of a long line of professional musicians from Central and Eastern Europe. Born in Amsterdam, she began her musical education at the age of three when, inspired by her grandmother, she began to play the piano. She took up the violin at the age of five in the class of Coosje Wijzenbeek and within her initial year of schooling, gave her first public performance in the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. When she was six, her family moved to Cape Town, where Gwendolyn continued her violin studies under the tutelage of her Hungarian-born mother, Maria Kelemen. By the following year she had become the youngest violinist to receive a Grade 5 Diploma with honours in South Africa.

Aged ten, her family settled in Dublin and she was accepted to the Conservatory of Music and Drama at the Institute of Technology. She studied there in the class of her father, Professor Ronald Masin, until 1996. Introduced to the Irish public at her début recital in the National Concert Hall in Dublin at the age of eleven, she also performed live on “The Late Late Show” in the same year, and has since been a regular guest on TV and radio productions in various countries.

Between 1990 and 1996 she received additional lessons from Professor Herman Krebbers in Amsterdam. In August of 1996, with the support of a Swiss Federal Scholarship, Gwendolyn began her virtuoso diploma studies with Professor Igor Ozim at the University of Arts in Berne and took her Concert exam there in July 2000. She had received her Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music (UK) in the previous year. In 2000, Gwendolyn commenced her postgraduate studies at the University of Music and Theatre in Zurich, Switzerland, with Professor Ana Chumachenco and in 2002 continued her studies in the same institute in the class of Professor Zakhar Bron. She received her Performance Degree with high honours from the University of Music in Lübeck, Germany, in November 2006 under the guidance of Professor Shmuel Ashkenasi.

Gwendolyn is laureate of the South African “Violin Days” competition where she received the first prize. She has also won the Irish “Feis Ceoil” prizes, was a finalist in the “Baroness Jordens” violin competition in The Hague and, as the Dutch representative at the “Global Stipends Awards”, she received the International Music Award. Amongst the distinctions she has received are the Associated Board of Music Grant (UK), the title of Young Soloist of the Year (Switzerland), the Elsy Meyer Bursary (Switzerland) and the Circle of Friends of the University of Music and Theatre Zurich Prize (Switzerland). Gwendolyn was nominated for “The Outstanding Young Persons of Switzerland” award for her achievements and has received support from the Swiss Foundation for Promotion of the Interpretative Arts for her exemplary performances. Since 1996, the Arts Council of Ireland has supported Gwendolyn in various projects.

Gwendolyn performs extensively in Europe and South Africa to critical acclaim and has played as a soloist with orchestras such as the Saint Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, the Bernese Symphony Orchestra, the Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra (Moscow), the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra of Ireland with whom she recorded for live broadcasts on Lyric FM and Classic FM, the Savaria Orchestra of Hungary, the Hibernian Orchestra, the I Suoni Bianchi Orchestra with whom she recorded live for Lyric FM, and the Young European Strings Chamber Orchestra.

Festival appearances include the West Cork Chamber Music Festival (Ireland), Prussia Cove (UK), Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Schiermonnikoog (The Netherlands), Festival Internazionale della Musica Linari (Italy), Encuentro Santander (Spain), and the Ars Longa Festival (Russia).

Gwendolyn has collaborated and concertised with an array of musicians including Alexander Baillie, Julia Bartha, Norbert Brainin, Isabel Charisius, Finghin Collins, Roger Chase, Peter Frankl, János Fürst, Franco Gulli, Yuzuko Horigome, Robert Kulek, Aleksandar Madzar, Siegmund Nissel, Martti Rousi, Alexander Rudin, György Sebök, Gerhard Schulz, Maria Tipo and Maxim Vengerov, and the actor Hanns Zischler.

Devoted to the performance of contemporary music, numerous compositions have been dedicated to and premiered by Gwendolyn including works by Don Li, Urs Peter Schneider, Eric Sweeney and John Buckley, who is currently completing his first violin concerto for her.

Gwendolyn has recorded for Tonus-Music Records and was the featured artist on the soundtrack, written by Don Li, to Frantiček Klossner’s film “Localisation”, which was shown in Switzerland in 2004.

Furthermore, Gwendolyn is founder and artistic director of the multidisciplinary series “In Search of Lost Time” and the “Gaia Chamber Music Festival”. The former is an international platform for classical and experimental art forms which first took place in 2004. The latter was inaugurated in 2006 and is held annually in Stuttgart, Germany, bringing together acclaimed musicians for a long weekend of concerts.
In 2007, Gwendolyn was appointed artistic director of the Carrick Water Music Festival which is held in County Leitrim, Ireland and features an international line-up of renowned artists from the worlds of classical, jazz and traditional music.

A pedagogue since her teenage years, Gwendolyn’s book on violin teaching, entitled “Michaela’s Music House”, will be published Europe-wide in 2008. “Michaela’s Music House” has been approved by the European String Teachers Association and has garnered exceptional recommendations from Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yefim Bronfman, Maria Kliegel and David Zinman, to name but a few.
Committed to the research and application of teaching methods, Gwendolyn gives violin and chamber music masterclasses in Hungary, Ireland, Italy, and Switzerland.

Gwendolyn plays a Lorenzo Carcassi violin made in Florence in 1761.

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