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

2024 Primrose International Viola Competition Competitors

Leslie Caitlin Ashworth is among the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s 2021 “Hot 30 Under 30 Classical Musicians” and a 2022 prizewinner of the Steppingstone International Competition. A passionate musician, Ms. Ashworth has performed in the Perlman Music Program, as quartet-in residence at the European Alliance Musical Alliance in Paris and with luminaries such as the Takacs String Quartet and Barbara Hannigan. She has been mentored in master classes with Kim Kashkashian, Robert Levin, Leon Fleisher, Jaime Laredo, and Samuel Rhodes. Ms. Ashworth received the Ontario Lieutenant

Governor’s Volunteer Award for founding the non-profit Suite Melody Care. Currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts under Misha Amory at the Juilliard School, Ms. Ashworth earned her Master of Music in Viola at Juilliard as a Kovner Fellow (2023) and a Master of Music in Violin at Rice University (2021). She plays an 1854 Joseph Rocca viola on loan from Juilliard. She gratefully acknowledges the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation.

Keoni Bolding enjoys an eclectic career, having performed with ensembles around the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Described as “mesmerizing” (The Burlington Hawkeye Times) and “transportive” (Santa Barbara Voice), music has been at the center of Mr. Bolding’s life since the age of three. Recent highlights include joining the viola section of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, recording A Gathering of Friends with Yo-Yo Ma, John Williams, and the New York Philharmonic, and premiering his electronic chamber opera, 52 Hz: The Whale Hsiang-Hsin Ching, a dedicated Taiwanese violist and recording engineer, is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Recording Arts and Viola Performance at the Peabody Institute under the guidance of Choong-Jin Chang. Invited as an Orchestra Academy member and section leader for the 2018 and 2019 Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, she earned abundant experiences in chamber music and orchestra. In 2020, Ms. Ching was awarded full scholarship to the Taipei Music Academy and Festival and, in 2022, the Aspen School of Music. She joined the Texas Chamber Music Institute with her quartet

Opera, at the Lincoln Center. Mr. Bolding holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, and Mercer University. In his spare time, he enjoys backpacking and surfing with his HSO homies and helping his family take care of their small dairy farm.

as quartet-in-residence and Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival in 2023. She was also a member of the New York String Orchestra. Ms. Ching’s performances have graced numerous venues across Europe, Asia, and the United States, including in Taipei, Changhua, Kaohsiung, Tokyo, Berlin, Hamburg, Lübeck, Plön, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

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