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

2024 Primrose International Viola Competition Competitors

Katie Liu is a Master of Musical Arts student at the Yale School of Music in the studio of Ettore Causa. Previously the principal violist of the American Youth Symphony, she is currently a section violist at the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and regularly performs with the New York Philharmonic as a substitute violist. An active chamber musician, Ms. Liu has performed with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and previously attended the NUME Academy and Verbier Festival Academy. Ms. Liu received her Master of Music degree at the Colburn School Conservatory of Music and her undergraduate

degree from Princeton University, concentrating in operations research and financial engineering with minors in musical performance and computer science. Aside from her musical pursuits, Ms. Liu has corporate working experience in asset management and fintech consulting. Her upcoming engagements in the summer of 2024 include Kronberg Academy Chamber Music Connects the World and North Shore Chamber Music Festival.

Laura Liu , a native of Miami, Florida, currently lives in New York City studying with Cynthia Phelps and Misha Amory. Recently hailed by Classical Voice America as a “standout” with “sound deep, warm, and consistently musical,” Ms. Liu participated in the Olympic Music Festival Fellowship, Music@Menlo’s International Performer’s Program, and Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Workshop this summer. She will return to Music@Menlo this February for its winter residency. Previously, Ms. Liu attended Taos School of Music, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West, and Heifetz International Music Institute.

She recently made her Casals Forum debut, performing in recital at the Kronberg Festival Masterclasses. She will return to Kronberg this May as a junior artist participating in its Chamber Music Connects the World. She recently earned her Bachelor of Music, and is now pursuing her master’s as a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at the Juilliard School.

The first violist to be awarded the Prix d’Europe in the competition’s 111 years of existence, Wilhelm Magner is currently completing a master’s degree in Viola Performance at Yale University in the studio of Ettore Causa. Previously, he completed a Graduate Diploma in Viola at McGill University, studying with André Roy. He was listed on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Hot 30 Under 30 Classical Musicians” list in 2022. Mr. Magner’s solo engagements in 2023– 24 include recitals in Canada, the United States, and Poland. He

is a prizewinner of many competitions, including the Canadian Music Competition (ex aequo first prize) and the OSJS Concerto Competition. He was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition as well as participated in the Prague Spring competition. He has performed at many summer festivals, such as the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and Kneisel Hall. He also is a recipient of the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award. Mr. Magner plays a viola by Ryan Soltis, Nelson (2023), and an Ouchard bow generously loaned by the company CANIMEX INC. from Drummondville (Quebec), Canada.

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