Young Concert Artists, First Prize (1999)
Dazzling International Soloist and Recording Artist
Sunday, May 2, 2010, 7:00pm
Tickets: $25
18 Chase Street, Newton Center
(one block from Newton Center T stop)
Post-Concert Reception
Guaranteed seating for prepaid tickets
Phone reservations also accepted
Checks payable to:
AHS Boston Chapter
18 Chase Street
Newton, MA 02459
For further information, call 617-527-0818
Program to Include:
G. Fauré Impromptu, Op. 86
P. Patterson Spiders
A. Ginastera Sonata
M. Mchedelov Variations on a theme of Paganini
N. Rota Sarabande and Toccata
A. Roussel Impromptu
F. Godefroid Carneval de Venise
Thirty year old Gwyneth Wentink was born in The Netherlands to Hungarian and Dutch musician parents. She had her first harp lesson at the age of five, performed Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp with the Netherlands National Youth Orchestra at eight, and at ten, performed for Dutch Queen Beatrix.
At sixteen, she won First Prize in the Israel International Harp Competition, the youngest first prize winner in what is considered the world’s top harp competition.
Wentink has been capturing first prizes in competitions since the age of eleven, including those of the Young Music Talent Foundation (the Netherlands), the International Nippon Harp Competition (Tokyo), the Torneo Internazionale di Musica (Rome). At seventeen, Wentink won the First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions (New York), the first solo harpist to win the award in YCA’s 40-year history. In the competition, she also won the Beracasa Foundation Prize and Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award.
Since then, Wentink has given solo harp recitals all over the world: Paris, Bucharest, Barcelona, Washington DC, Prague, Rome, Venice. She gave recital debuts at Wigmore Hall, London and Merkin Hall, New York and shortly thereafter performed at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. As a chamber musician, Wentink has performed at the Morgan Library (New York) with the flutist Eugenia Zukerman and throughout the USA.
As soloist with orchestra, Wentink has performed with I Fiamminghi (Brussels), the Orquestra Sinfonica Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho (Caracas), the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Nieuw Sinfonietta (Amsterdam), the Südwest Rundfunk Orchester in Germany (Stuttgart, Baden-Baden), the Bergen Philharmonic (Norway), the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the Residentie Orkest and Radio Chamber Orchestra (the Hague), the National Symphony Orchestra (Bucharest), and the Fins Philharmonik Orchestra (Helsinki). Wentink gave her New York concerto debut (Alice Tully Hall, 2001) with the New York Chamber Symphony.
Wentink studied at the Utrecht Conservatory with Erika Waardenburg and participated in masterclasses of Maria Graf, Susann McDonald, Catherine Michel, Andree Laurens-King and Susanna Mildonian.
"Gwyneth Wentink has an incredible technique which is always in service of the music. From the first notes on it became clear that this 17-year-old woman also touches the strings of the human soul."
- ALTENA NEWS (The Netherlands)
"A shy girl, she smiles a bit awkwardly when she comes on stage, sits at the instrument, and takes a few seconds to concentrate. In that short time, her face changes - the girl becomes an artist. Then she plays and the strings thunder, whistle, sing. Colors changes, from tinkling bells to murmuring water, from intimate whispering to loud voices. Her fingers dance on the strings in an unearthly fashion, sliding, plucking. The audience was spellbound.
- BRABANTS DAGLAD (The Netherlands)