2024 Primrose International Viola Competition & American Viola Society Festival Program Book

2024 Primrose International Viola Competition Jurors

Ensik Choi South Korea

Korean-born violist Ensik Choi’s extraordinary talent was recognized by maestro Myung-Whun Chung at an early age. He was accepted to study on a full scholarship at Crossroads High School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, California, studying with Heiichiro Ohyama, principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale, principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. While a student at Curtis, he formed the Borromeo String

Quartet, of which he was a member for five years. They won second prize at the Evian International Chamber Music Competition in France (1990) and the 1991 Young Artists International Auditions in New York. Mr. Choi’s numerous concerts have included performances in the United States, Europe and Asia, including the 92nd street Y and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and Wigmore Hall in London. Choi has performed at many festivals, including Spoleto Festivals in both Charleston, South Carolina and Italy; Orlando Festival in the Netherlands; Vancouver Festival in Canada; Cape and Islands Festival in Massachusetts; Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico; Beijing International Music Festival in China; Seoul Spring chamber music; and Just Vivace Festival in Korea. For three years, Choi was a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he earned his Artist Diploma with distinguished violist Walter Trampler. He later served on the faculty at the college-conservatory at the University of Cincinnati. He is currently professor of Viola at College of Music, Seoul National University, and the artistic director for the Just Vivace Festival in Korea.

Steven Dann Canada

Steven Dann was born on Canada’s West Coast in Burnaby, B.C. His foremost teacher and mentor was the late Lorand Fenyves. Other significant influences along the way included William Primrose, Robert Pikler, and Bruno Giuranna. Upon graduation from university, he was named Principal Viola of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, a position he subsequently held with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in

Amsterdam, the Vancouver Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has served as guest principal of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Horst Stein and Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle and, in both performance and recordings, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Berglund, Ivan Fischer, and Pierre Boulez. He also led the viola section of the Canadian Opera Company for the opening of Toronto’s Four Seasons opera house in performances of Wagner’s Ring Cycle under Richard Bradshaw. Steven Dann has collaborated as a soloist with such Maestri as Sir Andrew Davis, Rudolph Barshai, Jiri Belohlavek, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Oliver Knussen.

Since 1990, Dann has been a member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players in Washington D.C. and was a founding member of the Axelrod String Quartet. He is also

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