Calliope Smith, age 9, has been playing the violin since she was three and currently studies with Natasha Makhijani. She attends Synapse School in California and is a member of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (“PACO”). Calliope has been described, in the words of one judge, as “perform[ing] with great style, panache, and fidelity.” Calliope was a winner of the 2019 and 2020 PACO Concerto Competitions, won first prize in the Great Composers Competition Bartók, Haydn, Vivaldi and Music of the Seventeenth Century Competitions, obtained the Judges’ Distinction Award in the American Protégé Piano and Strings Competition, and received a Most Distinguished Musician Award and Young Talent Special Mention in the IBLA Grand Prize Competition. She has been a prize winner in a number of other international competitions, including Enkor, Vivo, Crescendo, Little Mozarts, and Glory, as well as the Great Composers’ Artist of the Year and Art of Instrumental Performance series. Calliope recently played in master classes for Ariana Kim and Tanya Tomkins. Calliope has attended the Point Counterpoint Prelude and Presto PACO chamber music camps and received a merit scholarship to participate in Interlochen’s Junior Advanced Strings program during the summer of 2021. In her spare time, Calliope loves reading, cooking, and doing math. When she grows up, she wants to be a violinist, composer, and conductor.
Concerto No. 9 in A minor, Charles de Bériot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1iIJChI4uM (4:43); Rhapsody No. 1, Béla Bartók, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqxoWWaCurM (4:35)
