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

2024 Primrose International Viola Competition Competitors

Yong Ha Jung is currently a graduate student at the Juilliard School under the mentorship of Carol Rodland, after spending most of his undergraduate studies with Roger Tapping. Born in South Korea, he moved to Dallas, Texas, at an early age where he began playing viola at the age of nine with Ronald Houston. Since then, Mr. Jung has won numerous competitions, including the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, Schmidbauer Young Artists Competition, and Collin County Young Artists Competition. He has performed in Carnegie Hall with the National Youth Orchestra in 2018 and toured Asia under the

baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. In recent years, Mr. Jung attended the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and Taos School of Music Chamber Music Festival, where he has focused on chamber music under renowned faculty members. Most recently, he has had the chance to attend the Verbier Music Festival, continuing to expand his passion for music.

Finnish violist Annariina Jokela started her musical journey at the Music Institute of Lapland, studying with Igor Arias and Taru Lehto. She continued her studies at the Sibelius Academy of the University of Arts Helsinki with Lilli Maijala and Pirkko Simojoki, and then continued her education, earning master’s degrees from both the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Nils Mönkemeyer and at HEMU Lausanne/Sion with Tatjana Masurenko. Upon completing her master’s degree with distinction, Ms. Jokela joined the faculty of the Sibelius Academy in 2022 as a viola teacher, concurrently serving as the

assistant to visiting viola professor Mönkemeyer. In addition, starting from 2023, she imparts her expertise to aspiring violists at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and has served as a substituting viola lecturer and head of the viola faculty. As a soloist, Ms. Jokela has performed with various orchestras, such as the Hamburger Camerata, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Kyoto, Japan, Mao Konishi first studied violin with Nobu Wakabayashi, Mark Gothoni, and Boris Belkin. She currently studies viola with Hartmut Rohde at the University of the Arts, Berlin. Other musical figures that guided her include Nobuko Imai, Walter Küssner, Antoine Tamestit, Tatjana Masurenko, and Miguel da Silva. She has won numerous awards at international competitions, including the first prize at the Ibolyka Gyarfas Competition, finalist and the Special Prize winner at the Karol Lipiński International Competition, and seco nd prize at the Verão Clássico. Ms. Konishi has performed with many

orchestras, such as the Torun Symphony Orchestra, the Krakow Chamber Orchestra, and the Lutosławski Orchestra. Since 2023, she has been a student at the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin. She has participated in prestigious master classes, such as the Kronberg Academy and the Villars Music Academy, organized by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Konishi plays a viola made by Ivo Iuliano (2022).

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