Giuseppe Guarneri

Bartolomeo Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri, del Gesù (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe ɡwarˈnɛːri]; 21 August 1698 – 17 October 1744) was an Italian luthier from the Guarneri family of Cremona. He rivals Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) with regard to the respect and reverence accorded his instruments, and for many prominent players and collectors his instruments are the most coveted of all. Instruments made by Guarneri are often referred to as Del Gesùs.

Guarneri is known as del Gesù (literally "of Jesus") because his labels after 1731 incorporated the nomina sacra, I.H.S. (iota-eta-sigma) and a Roman cross. His instruments diverged significantly from family tradition, becoming uniquely his own style. They are considered equal in quality to those of Stradivari, and claimed by some to be superior. Guarneri's violins often have a darker, more robust, more sonorous tone than Stradivari's. Fewer than 200 of Guarneri's instruments survive. They are all violins, although one cello bearing his father's label, dated 1731, seems to have been completed by del Gesù. The quality and scarcity of his instruments have resulted in sale prices in excess of $10 million USD.

Timothy Chooi

Timothy Chooi (born December 17, 1993) is a Canadian violinist . He was the Grand Prize winner of the 2010 Montreal Standard Life Competition and recently won top prizes at the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and 2015 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand.

Life and career

Timothy Chooi was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He started playing the violin at the age of three with the Suzuki method at the Victoria Conservatory of Music with Esther Tsang. He made his orchestral debut at the age of seven performing with his brother and the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. In 2007, when Chooi was twelve years old, he was invited to perform with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra at the celebration concert "Splash" for an audience of over 50,000 people

When Chooi was fourteen years old, he was accepted with full scholarship to attend the Academy Program at the Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary, Canada. Chooi communicated by airplane once every two weeks to Calgary in order to attend his highschool in Victoria Two years later after commuting between Victoria to Calgary, Chooi was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at the age of sixteen where he studied and still currently studies with Ida Kavafian. A few months after enrolling at the Curtis Institute of Music, Chooi was awarded the Grand Prize award at the 2010 Montreal Standard Life Competition and made his concerto debut with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jean Francois Rivest. His performance was described as "the miracle violinist" by Montreal's harshest critic, Claude Gringras.

Church of the Gesù

The Church of the Gesù (Italian: Chiesa del Gesù; Italian pronunciation: [ˈkjɛːza del dʒeˈzu]) is the mother church of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a Catholic religious order. Officially named Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di Gesù all'Argentina (English: Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus at the "Argentina"), its facade is "the first truly baroque façade", introducing the baroque style into architecture. The church served as model for innumerable Jesuit churches all over the world, especially in the Americas. The Church of the Gesù is located in the Piazza del Gesù in Rome.

First conceived in 1551 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits Society of Jesus, and active during the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent Catholic Reformation, the Gesù was also the home of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus until the suppression of the order in 1773. The church having been subsequently regained by the Jesuits, the adjacent palazzo is now a residence for Jesuit scholars from around the world studying at the Gregorian University in preparation for ordination to the priesthood.

Kristóf Baráti

Kristóf Baráti (born 1979) is a Hungarian violinist, and is widely regarded as one of the most talented violinists to emerge in recent years.

Early life

Baráti was born into a musical family in Budapest in 1979; his mother played the violin and his father was a cellist. He received his first violin instruction from his mother and continued his studies with the founder of the famous Tátrai Quartet, Vilmos Tátrai. Throughout much of his childhood, Baráti lived in Venezuela, where at the age of 8 he performed with the Maracaibo Symphony Orchestra.

In 1996, he began studying in Paris with Professor Eduard Wulfson. Wulfson, himself a student of Yehudi Menuhin, Nathan Milstein, and Henryk Szeryng, passed on to Baráti the standards which his own teachers had embodied.

Performance career

At one of his first notable competition appearances in 1995, the Gorizia Competition in Italy, Baráti won first prize, which would prove to be a touchstone for his future success. In the wake of a moving performance by Baráti at the Jacques Thibaud Competition, a critic wrote:

David Taylor

David Taylor or Dave Taylor may refer to:

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