Violin
Having studied the violin from the age of seven, Cristian Persinaru won many prestigious prizes in his native Romania and Italy, including First Prize in the Young Musicians’ Violin Competition – Bucharest, Romania and Citta di Stresa International Violin Competition – Stresa, Italy. While being only fourteen years of age, he was invited to broadcast live on Romanian television, in recognition for his achievements.
He came to London in 1990 and later received a two-year scholarship from the Wingate Foundation to complete his studies at the Royal Academy of Music where he learned with Jean Harvey and performed in masterclasses given by some of the finest tutors including Yfrah Neaman, Stefan Gheorghiu, Lydia Mortkovich, Mateja Marinkovich, Eric Gruenberg and Ruggiero Ricci.
Graduating in 1993 with Diploma and Licentiate, he won several awards including Marjorie Hayward Prize for outstanding performance in his final recital and John Mundy Prize for achievements during his studies at the Academy. Currently, he is Head of Strings at Trinity School in Croydon, South London.
As a soloist, Cristian has performed in Romania, Italy, Germany and United Kingdom, giving concerts with some of the finest orchestras in the world, including St. Petersburg Philharmonic. His repertoire covers a wide range of composers – from Bach and Vivaldi to Mozart and Beethoven, to Brahms and Wieniawski, to Enescu and Bartok.
As a chamber musician, he is first violin and a co-founder member in the Franke Piano Quintet, an ensemble that has built an impressive reputation for exploring and recording not only the landmarks of the piano and string quartet literature but also less familiar repertory, published or in manuscript. They have performed extensively throughout UK, broadcast live on Radio 3 and given world premiere performances of works written by Janet Beat, Rhyan Samuel, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Eduard Lalo, Edward Grieg and Michael Finnissy.
On his debut CD, he has recorded music by Russian composers Sergei Bortkiewicz and Sergei Rachmaninov with pianist Nils Franke, which was released early March 2005 on Warner Classics, Apex Collection.
Cristian is always in demand as a tutor and coach, preparing students for scholarship auditions, national youth orchestras and university and college entry exams as well as coaching, conducting and taking string sectionals for youth and county string orchestras. He is regularly invited to adjudicate competitions and recently was invited as jury to the Jeunnesse Musicale International Violin Competition. He has also conducted Trinity Strings at Cadogan Hall, London and took them on tour to Germany, Austria and Italy.
Cristian is playing on a fine violin made by Alessandro Gagliano, c. 1710 and restored by Hill & Sons in the early 1920s.
