New York – 3rd Year, part 2

At the end of November I decided to try my luck in a Concerto competition at The Juilliard School. Twenty-seven violinists from all programs entered the competition with a single purpose and that was to win a possibility to perform Bartok Violin concerto under the music director of New York Philharmonic Alan Gilbert in Carnegie Hall. I managed to pass to the final round as the only undergraduate student and I won a second prize which I was very happy for. Following week we had concertmaster auditions for 2014 season which we have to do every year. Again it was a two round process and I was successful for the second time in a row so I will be holding the position of a concertmaster until the end of my studies.

As a result of my successful auditions I was assigned to play in an opera cycle under the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, James Levine. It was an unbelievable experience for me and I have learned an incredible amount of things not just from him but also from the process of the rehearsals. The concert was called “The Night of Comical Operas” and we performed parts and acts from four different operas, Mozart’s Abduction form Seraglio, Stravinsky’s Mavra, Benvenuto Cellini by Hector Berlioz and Donizetti’s L’eliser d’amore.

In December I was offered to represent The Juilliard School for a beneficial concert in Carnegie Hall. It was called “Shostakovich for the children of Syria” and 120 musicians from the major orchestras (New York Philharmonic, Met Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and many others) from all around the world joined together to raise funds for Syria’s children in those difficult times. I have received yet another offer to participate in a project called “Juilliard joins Texas State” which happened over the spring break. The goal of this project is to performer series of concerts on campus of the Texas State University and also to help establish a musical department at this university by giving lectures and lessons.

This semester I have the same subjects as last semester, in both music theory and music history we moved to music of 20th century and I continue my studies of French Language. My chamber group had nice opportunities to perform in Alice Tully Hall and on a master class in Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center which we enjoyed very much. I also created a DVD recording for a competition which I would like to participate in and I am awaiting results.