Biography
Violinist Clara Saitkoulov has imposed herself as one of the most expressive and striking violinists of her generation.
Saitkoulov is the First Prize Winner and Special Prize Winner of the Kosciuszko Foundation Wieniawski Violin Competition in New York City, the First Prize and Grand Prize Winner of the Conroe Texas Young Artists Competition, the First Prize Winner of the Hong Kong International Young Music Competition, the First Prize Winner of the LMDC Records Competition (France), the Gold Medalist of the Manhattan International Music Competition, the Second Prize Winner of the New York International Artists Association, the Winner of the Eastern Music Festival Competition and the Third Prize Winner of the 6th UNISA International Strings Competition (Pretoria, South Africa).
Clara has appeared most recently as a soloist with the Tauride Palace Symphony Orchestra (Russia), the St. Petersburg Children’s Philharmonic, the Ensemble Ponticelli (Paris, France), the Shepherd School Symphony, the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra (North Carolina, United States), the Jackson Symphony Orchestra (Michigan, United States), the Johannesburg Philharmonic (South Africa).
A graduate from the Paris National Superior Conservatory with Boris Garlitsky, the University of Performing Arts in Munich with Ana Chumachenco and Rice University in Houston, USA, with Cho-Liang Lin, Clara has performed as a soloist and in chamber music since age 11 in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Russia, the United States, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa. She is a guest of various festivals and has performed in prestigious venues such as the Tel Aviv Opera, the Salle Gaveau and the Philharmonie in Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York City, to name a few.
She plays in different chamber music ensembles, and regularly in a piano trio with Roustem Saitkoulov, piano and Claire Oppert, cello. The trio recorded a first CD featuring great romantic trios and was awarded the First Prize for the best musical recording of the year (CIMES, Slovenia).
She plays a violin made by Andrea Guarneri generously on loan from Peter Biddulph in London.