Šimon Michal

I was born in Náchod in Eastern Bohemia. I have been playing violin since the age of four. I graduated from the Elementary Arts School in Police nad Metují under the tutelage of my father Ladislav Michal, and then the Prague Conservatory in Mr. Jaroslav Foltýn’s class. Over those fourteen years, I participated – and succeeded – in many competitions. I consider my overall victory of the Kocian Violin Competition in 2009 my greatest success, and I was also the first contestant to have won all age categories in the competition’s fifty-year history. My brother and I were the overall winners of the Concertino Praga 2009 radio competition. I was especially happy when, at the age of sixteen, I proceeded to the quarter-finals in the under-30 category in competitions including Premio Paganini, the Hannover International Violin Competition, and the Montreal International Musical Competition.

When I was thirteen, I went to the US for the first time to take the summer courses at the Meadowmount School of Music, where I worked hard with excellent teachers from the most prestigious universities for seven weeks. I had the opportunity to take the same courses in the following two years, and this allowed me to get to know teaching methods that appealed to me. That’s when my dream and my goal took shape: to make it into the most prestigious arts university in the world, nicknamed the ‘Harvard of music’ – The Juilliard School.

My dream was fulfilled on 31 March 2011. I was admitted to the bachelor’s program at The Juilliard School, in the class of the New York Philharmonic soloist and concertmaster Glenn Dicterow. I am immensely grateful to THE KELLNER FAMILY FOUNDATION, which has provided substantial financial backing to me, thus allowing me to live my dream!

Secondary

Prague Conservatory, class of Professor Jaroslav Foltýn, Czech Republic, state graduation exam in 2011

University

The Juilliard School of Music New York, USA, four-year Violin specialization, started in 2011

Goals

Complete the Bachelor’s and then the Master’s degrees at The Juilliard School New York