Friday, July 17, 2020

Ashley Tsai | 2nd Prize | Violin | 7th Edition | ENKOR Int'l Music Competition


Ashley Tsai is a 15-year-old Taiwanese-Canadian violinist, currently studying with Kathryn Corvino. In the summer of 2019, she was awarded the Taras Gabora Prize for Outstanding Performances at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in Italy. She also attended Camp Musical des Laurentides on a generous scholarship in 2018. Some of her most notable achievements include receiving first place in the Rotary Calgary Concerto Competition, which will give her the opportunity to play with the Calgary Civic Symphony in December 2020. She received second place in the 13 and under age group in the 2019 Canadian Music Competition, and was awarded first place in the Alberta String Association Concerto Competition in the spring of 2019, which gave her the opportunity to play with the Burman University Symphony Orchestra. In 2018, she also represented Calgary to participate in the Alberta Music Festival Association Provincials and won first place in the 16-and-under class as well as the Grand Prairie & District Music Festival Scholarship.
All of Ashley’s Royal Conservatory of Music examination marks have been First Class Honours with Distinction. She also got gold medals for the highest mark in the province for Grades 4 (2015) and 9 (2018), which puts her in the top 2% of Canadians with that score. Ashley has also been invited by the Royal Conservatory of Music to perform for the annual Celebration of Excellence Recital in 2018.

Ashley has been a soloist with the North Calgary String Orchestra in 2018, an orchestra in which she was a concertmaster in 2017 and 2018. In addition to being a soloist, she also plays chamber music, currently being the violinist in a string trio and a piano trio. She has studied with various teachers, including Anne Shih, Taras Gabora, Kirill Troussov, Robert Ushida, and Paul Zafer.

Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19, Sergei Prokofiev (9:35)
https://youtu.be/YHEf8RkfBro