Gwendolyn Masin

Gwendolyn Masin has been described as “a natural performer with an authority most violinists would envy” (Irish Times), “a formidable talent that demands attention” (Sunday Business Post), “setting first-rate standards in concert performance with her technically superior, refined, intensive and richly contrasting expression”
(Der Bund) and “an impressive soloist with a beautifully rich tone, easy virtuosity and a real feeling for a musical line” (Sunday Tribune).
Born in Amsterdam, Gwendolyn began her musical education at the age of five and in the same year gave her first public performance at the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest. Aged eleven she performed on the Late Late Show and has since been a regular guest on TV and radio productions in various countries.
Gwendolyn performs extensively in Europe and South Africa and has played as a soloist with orchestras such as the Saint Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, the Bernese Symphony Orchestra, the Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra (Moscow), the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTE Concert Orchestra of Ireland, the Hibernian Orchestra, the Savaria Orchestra of Hungary, I Suoni Bianchi and the Young European Strings Chamber Orchestra. Festival appearances include the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Prussia Cove, Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Schiermonnikoog, Ars Longa Moscow and Festival Internazionale della Musica Linari.
She holds degrees with highest honours from the Royal Schools of Music in London, the Hochschule der Künste in Berne and the Musikhochschule in Lübeck. Gwendolyn has studied with her parents, Maria Kelemen and Ronald Masin, as well as Herman Krebbers, Igor Ozim, Ana Chumachenco, Zakhar Bron and Shmuel Ashkenasi. She has won many prestigious prizes and awards in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the UK and has been nominated for “The Outstanding Young Persons Of Switzerland” award for her achievements.
Gwendolyn has collaborated with musicians such as the violinists Yuzuko Horigome and Maxim Vengerov, the violists Isabel Charisius and Roger Chase, the cellists Alexander Baillie, Martti Rousi and Alexander Rudin, the pianists Julia Bartha, Finghin Collins, Robert Kulek, Peter Frankl, Aleksandar Madzar and Gyorgy Sebok, the conductors Janos Furst and Gerhard Markson, and the actor Hanns Zischler.
Devoted to the performance of contemporary music, Gwendolyn has premiered works from, amongst others, Don Li, Urs Peter Schneider, Eric Sweeney, Martijn Voorvelt and John Buckley, the latter of whom is currently completing his first violin concerto, dedicated to her.
In recent years, Gwendolyn has contributed to new ventures that make music accessible to a wider audience. She established the international, multidisciplinary series In Search of Lost Time in 2004, for which the Sunday Business Post stated: “mark her down as a daring and exciting young performer who ventures courageously into unknown territory with relish”. Establishing the annual Gaia Chamber Music Festival in 2006, which has taken place in the region of Stuttgart for two consecutive years, Gwendolyn is taking the festival to Switzerland in 2009, once again bringing together various acclaimed musicians for a long weekend of concerts. In 2007, as Carrick Water Music Festival’s newly appointed artistic director, she received acclaim as “an innovative and daring operator within the musical-cultural sphere” (Sunday Business Post), and will continue to guide the festival in 2008 and 2009.
Research and application of music methodology have always been an inseparable part of Gwendolyn’s work. She has thus been giving violin and chamber music masterclasses in Hungary, Ireland, Italy, and Switzerland and is currently writing a doctoral thesis on 20th century and contemporary violin pedagogy for Trinity College in Dublin. A pedagogue since her teenage years, Gwendolyn’s book on violin teaching, entitled Michaela’s Music House, will be published next year.
In an interview given to the Irish Times discussing the influence of music and literature upon one another, Gwendolyn commented: “Most stories are about love”. This very emotion seems to be the driving force behind all the undertakings of this young artist, be it performance, direction, teaching or writing.
Further websites:
http://www.gwendolynmasin.com
http://www.whoismichaela.com
http://www.gaia-festival.com
http://www.in-search-of-lost-time.com
http://www.carrickwatermusic.com