Christina Nam, Violin
Rohan De Silva, Piano
Sunday, October 2, 2022
7 pm
Memorial Hall, OTR
Youngest competitor (age 14) and Top Prize Winner of the 2017 Cooper International Violin Competition!
Since her solo debut at age 9 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Christina Nam has appeared in recitals and as soloist with numerous orchestras and at festivals across the globe. A native of Cincinnati and graduate of Walnut Hills High School, she is the recipient of many accolades and honors, both at international and national competitions.
Other prizes include semi-finalists at the 8th Louis Spohr International Competition (2016) and at Johansen International Competition (2018), and top prizes and recognition from the Overture Awards, Louisville Orchestra Young Artists, Sejong Music, Clark J. Haines Memorial, Jack and Lucille Wonnell Young Artists, Lakeland Young Artists, Belew Young Artist, David L. Pierson Young Musicians Concerto Competition, Mary Lane Violin Competition, Frieda Schumacher Competition, Dayton Philharmonic Concerto Competition, Clifton Music Club, Cincinnati Symphony Club, and Matinée Musicale Scholarship Competitions. Ms. Nam was invited to participate in the Junior category of the prestigious Menuhin Competition 2018 Geneva, Switzerland.
During the competition, she was chosen as soloist with the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Musique de Genève under the baton of Maestro Antoine Marguier performing Saint-Saens Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Nam also had the honor to represent the USA at the Closing Gala Concert in the Bow Passing Ceremony for next Menuhin Competition, Richmond Virginia, USA 2020. Most recently, Ms. Nam is a 2019 National YoungArts Winner and a recipient of Josephine I. and David J. Josephh Jr. Award.
Nam’s solo career has included appearances with numerous symphony orchestras across the country. In addition to her performances with the prominent orchestras of Cincinnati and Cleveland, she has performed with the Louisville Orchestra, Miami Valley Symphony, Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony, Kentucky Symphony, Ohio Valley Symphony, Wright State University Symphony, Lakeland Civic Orchestra, Seven Hills Sinfonietta, Cincinnati Symphony Youth Philharmonic, Cleveland Philharmonic, and Butler Philharmonic Orchestra.
She has also appeared twice as soloist with Philadelphia International Music Festival Orchestra with Maestro Cristian Macelaru as a two-time winner of the PIMF Competition. She frequently played solos with the Starling Chamber Orchestra, most notably at age 9 at the National Convention of American String Teachers Association in Atlanta, and in 2016 as a soloist on the SCO’s China Tour. Her credits internationally also include an invitation in 2012 to perform in the very concert that inaugurated the Harpa International Music Academy in Reykjavik, Iceland. Recently, Nam was the violin soloist for Faure’s Requiem in a concert, Sing for a Cause project conducted by Maestro Louis Langrée of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
A devoted chamber musician, Ms. Nam has worked with Colin Carr, Daniel Heifetz, members of the American, Ying, Cavani, Great Wall, Calidore, Borromeo, and Ariel string quartets. She is a founding member of the Immaculata Chamber Music Series and performs regularly throughout the greater Cincinnati region. Recently her Éclatante String Quartet from the Cincinnati Starling Project won Silver Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. A born leader, she served as concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the Walnut Hills High Chamber Orchestra, and the Starling Chamber Orchestra.
In the past, she has spent her summers traveling to various festivals at home and abroad. From the Great Wall International Music Academy in Beijing, the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, and the Cincinnati Young Artist Chamber Music Festival at home in Cincinnati to the Innsbrook Institute in Missouri and the Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy in Canada. She also participated in the Meadowmount School of Music in New York and the Heifetz International Music Institute in Virginia as a Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Full Scholarship recipient. Ms. Nam performed as a student artist at Starling-Delay Symposium on Violin Studies at the Juilliard School, as Artist-in-Residence giving a solo recital and outreach concerts at Randolph College in Virginia, and as a soloist at the inaugural Atlanta Festival Academy International Rising Stars Concert. This past summer, she attended Aspen Music Festival with a full scholarship orchestral fellowship. Christina’s upcoming concerts include performing the Tchaikovsky concerto with CSO/CSYO and Louis Langrée at the podium, and a featured recitalist for the prestigious Matinee Musicale Cincinnati concert series with pianist, Rohan De Silva.
Nam is a full scholarship Greene Foundation Fellowship student of Catherine Cho and Donald Weilerstein at the Juilliard School. Her former teachers include Kurt Sassmannshaus, Amy J. Lee and Jan Mark Sloman. Nam has played in masterclasses for Pamela Frank, Robert Lipsett, Friedemann Eichhorn, David Kim, Kathleen Winkler, Mark Kaplan, Rachel Barton Pine, Vadim Gluzman, and Gil Shaham. Nam’s recording and broadcast credits include two appearances on NPR’s radio show “From the Top” and PBS/CET’s “Showcase with Barbara Kellar”. Nam can be heard on Volumes I and II of the Violin Recital Album of Sassmannshaus Tradition published by Bärenreiter.
Rohan De Silva, Piano
Pianist Rohan De Silva was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Cho-Liang Lin, Joshua Bell, Anne Akiko Meyers, Kurt Nikkanen, Gil Shaham, Kyoko Takazawa, Vadim Repin, and Midori. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, the 92nd St. Y, Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Philadelphia Academy of Music, Ambassador Theater, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, London’s Wigmore Hall, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and Milan’s La Scala. He has also appeared at the festivals of Aspen, Interlochen, Manchester, Ravinia, Schleswig-Holstein, Pacific, and Wellington.
Among De Silva’s awards are the best accompanist special prize at the ninth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He performed at the White House in 2007 for President George W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth, and in 2012 with Perlman for President Barak Obama and Shimon Peres. He has also appeared on television on The Tonight Show with Midori; and on radio stations WQXR, WNYC, and WNCN, as well as the Berlin Radio, Japan’s NHK, and CNN’s Showbiz Today, Millenium Grammy’s 2000. De Silva has recorded on the DGG, CBS/Sony Classical, Collins Classics, and BMG labels.
De Silva holds BM and MM degrees from Juilliard where he studied piano with Martin Canin and chamber music with Felix Galimir. He earned an associate degree from the Royal Academy of London in 1992 and was the recipient of the first President’s Fund scholarship from his home country to study at Juilliard. He also studied piano with Hamish Milne while attending the Royal Academy of Music from 1975 to 81. De Silva has been on the faculty at Juilliard since 1991.
Program
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Major, Op. ------------ Jean-Marie LeClair (1697-1764)
Un poco andante
Allegro
Sarabande
Tambourin
Violin Sonata No. 3 in d minor, Op. 10 --------- Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Allegro
Adagio
Un poco presto e con sentimento
Presto agitato
— INTERMISSION —
Poème, Op. 25 -------------------------------------- Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Romance from Albumblatt, WWV 94 --------- Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
arr. by August Wilhelmj
Carmen Fantasie Brillante ----------------------- Jenö Hubay (1858-1937)
—ENCORE—
“Slavonic Fantasy” in B Minor (Melodies by Antonin Dvořák) arranged by Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)
Photos from the Concert
Photography by Gayna Bassin