First Prize
Christine Wu
USA
Teacher: Jaime Laredo
Score: 94.84
20 year-old violinist Christine Wu is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of world-renowned musician Jaime Laredo. She began her studies at age three in Plano, Texas with Paul Landefeld and later continued under the tutelage of Jan Mark Sloman. In addition to violin, she studied piano for nine years with Dr. Annie Lin and has experience as a collaborative pianist.
Christine has been named the grand prize winner in the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, Juanita Miller Concerto Competition, and Dallas Symphonic Festival. As a soloist, she has performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, and the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, among others. Recently, she was awarded the top prize in the CIM Concerto Competition and appeared in concert with the CIM Orchestra in Severance Hall. Christine also served as concertmaster in the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra as well as the Texas All-State Symphony Orchestra. Through these performances, she worked under the baton of acclaimed conductors such as Raffi Armenian, Karina Canellakis, Carl St. Clair, Benjamin Zander, and Guillermo Figueroa. Christine is an avid chamber musician, having collaborated with Joseph Silverstein in benefit concerts at the Meadowmount School of Music. At CIM, she is a participant in the Advanced Piano Trio Program, directed by Sharon Robinson. Christine has experience teaching and coaching students at the Meadowmount School of Music, The Institute for Strings, and Joyful Noise.
Additional studies have included the Meadowmount School of Music, where she was a scholarship student and recipient of the Starling Foundation Scholarship, the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program as one of twelve young artists, The Institute for Strings, and the Colorado Suzuki Institute. She also performed in Carnegie Hall as a part of the New York String Orchestra Seminar in 2013, and she has performed in master classes for distinguished artists including Joseph Silverstein, Sergiu Luca, James Ehnes, Leonidas Kavakos, Ani Kavafian, and Charles Castleman.
SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE JURY
Excellent from every perspective! Big talent!
Exelent performance.
She is so strong!
Great performance! Beautiful sound and colours! You have excellent technique and apply it well to your music. You have a very personal style which great to hear. Bravo!
Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 61, Elgar, 18:19
