Daniela Shtéreva - First Prize on Violin
$7,500 prize and a performance with the FMMC Orchestra on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. in the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center

Yu Jin - First Prize on Viola
$7,500 prize and a Phillips Collection Recital on December 10, 2006 at 5 p.m.

David Requiro - First Prize on Cello
$7,500 prize and a Phillips Collection Recital on April 29, 2007 at 5 p.m.

Sarah Kapustin - Second Prize on Violin
$4,000 prize and a recital at the Alden Theater

Susie Park - Tied for Third Place on Violin
$1,000 prize

Markus Placci - Tied for Third Place on Violin
$1,000 prize

Daniela Shtéreva
In November 2005, Daniela received a Sibelius Family Award as a semi-finalist of the 9th Sibelius Competition. Mrs. Shtéreva has 5 CDs released for Music Minus One and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Pittsburgh, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. She has participated in number of international festivals and master classes including those of D. Weilerstein and P. Frank. Daniela studies at Carnegie Mellon University with Prof. Cyrus Forough.

Yu Jin
Reviewed by the Washington Post "shapely phrasing and an array of dazzling colors"

Yu Jin, a native of Ha-Er-Bin, China. She began studying violin at age five, took up viola at age sixteen at the high school of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Winner of many viola competitions, including the first prize of the Washington International Competition, the Chicago Viola Society Solo Competition, the Ohio Viola Society Competition, the Ohio String Teachers Association Competition, and the concerto competition of Cleveland Institute of Music; prize winner of the Primrose International Viola Competition and Festival, the Corpus Christi International Competition, the special recognition for viola performance at the National ASTA Competition, and the China Solo Viola Competition. With her quartet, she also won the first prize of OOSTA chamber competition, and the Coleman-Barstow Prize for strings in the Coleman Chamber Competition. Most recently, Ms. Jin won the second prize of the Irving Klein International String Competition.

Ms. Jin has participated many music festivals, such as the Marlboro Summer Music Festival, fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar as the viola principal under the director of Jaime Laredo, which performed in Carnegie Hall. As a chamber musician, Ms Jin performed in the Kennedy Center with her quartets in both 2005 and 2006 as a part of the Conservatory Project. She was a member of the Beijing Viola Ensemble, which toured the United States in 2003. Ms. Jin was principal viola of the Morningside Music Bridge at Calgary, Canada. In January 2004, she appeared in a CIM faculty concert "From the Pen of the Presidents", broadcast live on radio. Recently, Ms. Jin is invited to tour with Musicians from Marlboro in 2007.

Ms. Jin has collaborated with James Colon, members of Guarneri Quartet, Julliard Quartet, Mendelssohn Quartet, and Cleveland Orchestra. She also worked and participated in master classes with Isidore Cohen, Roberto Diaz, Kim Kashkashian, Donald Wilerstein, members of Brentano Quartet, Cavani quartet, Cleveland Quartet, Orion Quartet, and Takács Quartet.

Ms Jin is the principal of the City Music Cleveland. Recently, she is invited to join Apollo's fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, as a baroque violist, and co-concertmaster in Case/CIM Baroque Orchestra. She studies viola with Jeffrey Irvine at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

David Requiro, 21, is a junior at the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studies with Richard Aaron. A native of Oakland, CA, he began the cello at age six and has studied with Milly Rosner, Bonnie Hampton, and Mark Churchill. He has attended the Crowden School and the Walnut Hill School for the Arts. For four seasons, David was principal cellist of both the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of Boston and the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. Most recently, David was awarded first prize at both the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and the Washington International Competition for strings. He has also recently performed concertos by Elgar and Kabalevsky with the CIM Orchestra. David's has been a featured soloist with the Santa Rosa, Oakland-East Bay, Fremont, Kensington, Quincy, and Diablo symphonies as well as Symphony Pro Musica in Boston. While at the Aspen Music Festival, he premiered Tan Dun's Elegy: Snow in June (Concerto for Cello and Percussion) with members of the Aspen Percussion Ensemble. As a member of the Kashii String Quartet, David has served on faculty at the Innsbrook Music Festival and Institute as well as winning Silver Medal at the 2005 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The quartet has recently finished a recording project with guitarist David Tanenbaum featuring the quintet of Aaron J. Kernis' entitled 100 Greatest Dance Hits. David has had the opportunity to work with members of the Emerson, Takacs, Borromeo, Brentano, Orion, St. Lawrence, and Juilliard String Quartets as well as with Isaac Stern in the 2001 "Stern Encounters" masterclass series. He has also collaborated with the Alexander String Quartet in a benefit concert for the Crowden School. As well as having been a member of the New York Strings Seminar, David has also participated in the Aspen Music Festival, Music@Menlo, and will be playing in the Giverny Chamber Music Festival this summer. During the summer of 1999, David performed the European premieres of Lou Harrison's Suite for cello and orchestra on tour to Italy with the Crowden School Orchestra. David's instrument has been graciously loaned to him from the collection of Ray A. Carlsen of Bellevue, Washington.

Sara Kapustin's musical activities have taken her across North America, Europe and Australia, in performances as both soloist and chamber musician. Born in Milwaukee, WI, she has performed with such orchestras as the Milwaukee Symphony, Indiana University Philharmonic, Juilliard Symphony, and the Pasadena Symphony. Sarah has received prizes and honors in numerous competitions, and has appeared in such prestigious concert venues as Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Sala Nezahualcoyotl in Mexico City. Sarah has participated in masterclasses with many distinguished musicians, including Joshua Bell, Midori, Leonidas Kavakos and William Preucil.

An avid chamber musician, Sarah participated in the Musique de Chambre à Giverny festival in France during the autumns of 2003-06, where she performed with such artists as Claude Frank, Joseph Silverstein, Barbara Westphal, Michel Strauss and Vladimir Mendelssohn. In 1999 she competed in the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition as a member of the Dubinsky Quartet. The quartet, formed in 1995, also garnered prizes at the fischoff and Coleman Chamber Music Competitions. She has also performed chamber music at the Sarasota Music Festival, in Boston with the Arcturus Chamber Ensemble, and in several concerts with students and faculty at Indiana University and the Juilliard School. Sarah recently returned from her second summer at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.

Sarah received a Masters degree in violin performance at The Juilliard School with Robert Mann in May 2005. She previously received a Bachelor of Music and an Artist Diploma from Indiana University as a pupil of Mauricio Fuks, and formerly studied with Mimi Zweig and James Przygocki at the String Academy of Wisconsin. Currently Sarah resides in Paris where she is studying on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique with Jean-Jacques Kantorow, violin and Michel Strauss, chamber music.

Markus Placci
Winner of the prestigious XXVI Vittorio Veneto Competition ("Premio Biennale Citta' di Vittorio Veneto"), third prize winner of the Washington International Competition, and winner of other 10 national and international first prizes, Markus Placci was born in September 1981, and began his violin studies at the age of 8, entering the Bologna Conservatory (G.B. Martini) two years later. There he was awarded "Best Student of the Year" ("Plata Award") in 1994, and, in the same year, he made his solo debut playing with the Bologna Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Placci has played recitals and solo concerts throughout Europe and the United States in venues such as the Great Philharmonic Hall and the Sheremetyev Palace in St. Petersburg (Russia), the Kursaal in Baden-Baden, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Auditorium Pollini in Padova, the Teatro Monumental in Madrid, the Ozawa Hall at Talgewood, the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, and the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, among others.

After one of his recitals, the "Giornale di Vicenza" hailed him as "…an authentic and fascinating promise for the future", "La Libre Belgique" described his presence on stage as "magnificent", while in Baden-Baden the critics hailed his sound as "ideal".

Mr. Placci's highlights include solo appearances with orchestras such as the Mravinsky Orchestra, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the Radio-Television Orchestra of Spain (ORTVE), the Bologna Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Orchestra, the Busoni Chamber Orchestra and the Ensemble Respighi. In Italy, his many engagements include concert seasons like Padova (Amici della Musica - Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto), Milano (Societa' Umanitaria), Mestre (Amici della Musica), Asolo (Asolo Musica), Vicenza (Societa' del Quartetto), Bologna (Emilia Romagna Festival), Roma (Radio3 Suite), Torino, Trieste, Bari, Pavia, Napoli among others, while he toured Spain on direct invitation of the President of Jeunesse Musicale of Spain.

In September 2005 Mr. Placci world premiered with great acclaim the Violin Concerto No. 1 written by Catalan composer Jordi Cervello' at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid, with the ORTVE Orchestra (Orchestra of the Radio-Television of Spain), under the baton of Uwe Mund, while in 2006 he was the soloist in A. Trovajoli's Concerto for violin "Puppets" with the Bologna Symphony.

When 16, he was the youngest member of the European Youth Orchestra (EUYO), and at 18, a month after graduating the Bologna Conservatoy with top grades, "Summa cum laude" and "Honourable Mention", he was invited to serve as Assistant Concertmaster with the Florence Symphony (Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino).

In 2003 and 2004 Mr. Placci was invited to be a Fellow at Tanglewood (MA), summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he served repeatedly as Concertmaster of the Orchestra (TMC), collaborated with the Boston Symphony under Kurt Masur, and was the recipient of the "Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize".

After having spent a period in Lübeck (Germany) with famous pedagogue Zakhar Bron, he moved to Boston, in order to study with renowned Russian teacher Zinaida Gilels at The Boston Conservatory, with full scholarship. Under her guidance, associated with the ones of L. Chang, L. Stoltzman and I. Muresanu, he graduated with a Graduate Performance Diploma and, recently, with the prestigious Artist Diploma. He is currently studying in New York with Mela Tenenbaum.

Mr. Placci attended various Masterclasses with artists such as N. Fischer, Berlin Philharmoniker Concertmaster R. Kussmaul, E. Tchugajeva, P. Frank, M. Quarta, I. Kaler, L.Ciulei and C. Tetzlaff.

A son of two musicians, Markus Placci plays on a 1871 J.B. Vuillaume violin, copy of the "Alard" Stradivari.

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