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

2024 Primrose International Viola Competition Competitors

Zhou Xunyu is 16 years old and is currently studying at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music under the guidance of Liu Nian. In 2017, she was admitted to the primary school department of Shanghai Conservatory with excellent results. In 2020, she was exempted from the exam and directly promoted to the junior high school department of the conservatory. Also, in 2020, she won the 21st Italian Montelosa Cavai Award at the Valcecia International Youth Music Competition and second prize in the fifth Russia Moscow International Music Competition. In 2021, she was selected for a Little Angels program and performed five

folk song concertos together with Master Tang Muhai and Shanghai Opera House Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Xunyu was admitted to the Morningside Music Bridge in 2022 and won the 11th Italy Giuseppe Raciti at the International Music Competition (Group C). In 2023, she was selected by Tabea Zimmermann to participate in the Kronberg Viola master class in Germany.

Canadian violist Emad Zolfaghari was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at age 16, where he currently studies with Hsin Yun Huang. He is the first -prize winner of the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and the International Morningside Music Bridge Competition. He is the second-prize winner of the Johansen International String Competition and third-prize winner of the OSM String Competition. Mr. Zolfaghari has appeared as a soloist with several major symphony orchestras, including l’Orchestre Métropolitain under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Montreal Symphony, Toronto

Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic, Oakville Chamber Orchestra, and National Metropolitan Philharmonic. His previous mentors include Theresa Rudolph, Caroline Coade, and Shanda Lowery-Sachs. His other awards include grand prize at the OMNI Music Co mpetition, first prize at the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Competition, Guelph Symphony Orchestra Competition and Oakville Chamber Orchestra Competition, second prize at the Ronald Sachs International Music Competition and top and special prizes at the Shean Strings Competition.

2024 Primrose International Viola Competition Orchestra Conductor

Elias Peter Brown works as a conductor, composer, improviser, and curator, seeking to create meaningful spaces for listening in and out of the concert hall. He currently serves as the Assistant Conductor for the Odense Symphony Orchestra and is a 2024 recipient of the Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award. Brown is a recent graduate of the Nagaunee Conducting Program at the Colburn School, where he was personally mentored by Esa Pekka Salonen and served as assistant conductor at the San Francisco Symphony.

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