Rachell Wong

Member

Biography

 

Recipient of a prestigious 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant (the first baroque recipient in the respected program’s history) and Grand Prize winner of the inaugural Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition, violinist Rachell Ellen Wong is a rising star on both the historical performance and modern violin stages, and has performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Costa Rica, Panama, China, and New Zealand. A sought-after collaborator, her growing reputation as one of the top historical performers of her generation has resulted in appearances with such respected ensembles as the American Bach Soloists and The Academy of Ancient Music, and tours with Bach Collegium Japan, Les Arts Florissants, and others. Equally accomplished on the modern violin, Ms. Wong made her first public appearance with the Philharmonia Northwest at age 11 and has since performed as a soloist with such orchestras as Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá and Seattle Symphony.

 

Following summer performances with Yale Schola Cantorum in Oslo, Norway, at Massachusetts’ Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Series, with the American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, The Academy of Ancient Music in the UK, Bach Collegium Japan in Warsaw, Poland, and with Les Arts Florissants at France’s Festival Thire, Ms. Wong’s 2019-2020 season is split between orchestral, recital and chamber music concerts. Engagements include performances with the American Classical Orchestra, New Amsterdam Consort, Mercury Chamber Orchestra, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Voices of Music, Byron Schenkman & Friends, Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, and New York Baroque Incorporated. She appears in recital at New York’s Island Symphony Bach Festival, with Dioscuri, and the Heifetz International Music Institute, Nationally, she can be heard in chamber music performances with the Jupiter Ensemble in Paris, for the Lakewold Gardens Series (WA), and with the Shanghai Camerata in Shanghai, China. This season, Ms. Wong also serves as a 2019-2020 Mercury Chamber Orchestra Juilliard Fellow, and as an American Fellow of The English Concert.

 

Passionate about chamber music as well as orchestral and recital music, Ms. Wong is a founding member of New Amsterdam Concert, a New York-based period- instrument string ensemble comprising Juilliard graduates specializing in one-on-a-part performances of music from the Renaissance through the High Baroque. Fellow members include violinist Isabelle Seula Lee, violist Andrew Gonzalez, cellist Keiran Campbell and harpsichordist Robert Warner. With acclaimed keyboardist David Belkovski, she co-founded Dioscuri, a dynamic, versatile ensemble that focuses on music from all periods on historical instruments. Dioscuri will be hosted by Valley of the Moon Music Festival in summer 2020. Notable past concerts include performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Orquesta Sinfónica in Costa Rica, Bottesini’s Gran Duo Concertante with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá, recitals with world-renowned pianists Anton Nel and Byron Schenkman, and a 16 concert, four-city tour of New Zealand with the New Zealand String Quartet which included the New Zealand premiere of Alexander Ekman’s Cacti for on stage string quartet and ballet with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and a recital in Wellington, New Zealand featuring works by Bartok, Schubert and Beethoven, also with the New Zealand String Quartet. Ms. Wong served as Artist-in-Residence with the Heifetz International Music Institute in Staunton, Virginia from 2017-2019.

 

A native of Seattle, Washington, Rachell Ellen Wong counts among her numerous awards and honors grand prizes in the 52nd Sorantin International String Competition, the International Crescendo Music Awards, the Heida Hermann’s International Competition, and Seattle’s Gallery Concert’s Next Generation Competition. Recently, she placed in the XXI J.S. Bach International Competition in Germany. She is the recipient of a 2019 Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant from The Juilliard School; a 2017 Kovner Fellowship, also from The Juilliard School; a 2013 Barbara and David Jacobs Fellowship Award and a 2013 Artist Excellence Award, both from Indiana University; a Distinguished Performance, King Award at the 2012 Young Artists Nat'l Competition; the Starling Distinguished Violinist Scholarship from UT-Austin, from 2009 – 2013, and the 2009 Cascade Symphony's Mori Simon Scholarship, of which she was the first recipient.

A recent graduate, Ms. Wong holds a Masters in Music in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School in New York City, where she moved after receiving her Masters in Music from Indiana University and a Bachelors of Music from The University of Texas at Austin. Teachers include Brian Lewis, Cynthia Roberts, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Kent Coleman, Mark Kaplan, Monica Huggett, Rachel Podger, Simon James, and Stanley Ritchie. When not performing, Ms. Wong enjoys exploring her multi-racial heritage by studying diverse musical styles, including the Scottish fiddle. She performs on a baroque violin from the school of Joachim Tielke and a violin made by Carlo de March. An animal lover, she has two rabbits.

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