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For the sixth year running, First Act Inc. has donated scholarship funds to students
at the Heifetz International Music Institute Summer Program in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.
First Act initially partnered with the Heifetz Institute in 2003 to provide
scholarships for summer program candidates. Together, First Act and Heifetz are
dedicated to inspiring and enabling young people to experience the joy of
making music.
All attendees and scholarship candidates are selected by the Heifetz
International Music Institute.
The 2008 winners are:
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Winners this year include (left to right) Beiliang Zhu, Hélène Koerver,
G. Nil Kocamangil, Zina Levchenko, and Dmitry Volkov
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G. Nil Kocamangil, cello
G. Nil Nocamangil, a nineteen-year-old cellist, was born in 1989 in Istanbul, Turkey.
At nine, she began her cello studies with
Dilbag Tokay and was eligible to attend Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University
(MSFAU) State Conservatory as a part-time student. A year later, she became a regular full-time
student.
In 2005 she played the
Tchaikovsky Nocturne as a soloist with the MSFAU School Orchestra, and that
summer she was chosen to perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto as a soloist with the Istanbul
Philarmonia. In 2007 she played the
Saint–Saens Cello Concerto as a soloist with the Bursa State Symphony Orchestra.
Nil also participated in the Up-Beat International Summer Academy in Croatia
in 2007, working with
Alexander Boyarsk, and later that year attended the Canetti Festival and worked
with German cellist Claus Kanngiesser. In 2008, she played the Vivaldi Two
Cello Concerto with the Kopuz Chamber Orchestra, and played Haydn’s Cello
Concerto as a soloist with the Anatolia Symphony Orchestra.
Nil has won
numerous awards and has given cello performances in Turkey, Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Austria. She is presently continuing her cello
education at the State Conservatory with Dilbag Tokay.
Hélène Koerver, viola
Hélène Koerver,
a twenty-one-year-old
viola student, was born in Ottignies, Belgium,
and
studied at L’Ecole Internationale le Verseau until she was 14. She is currently enrolled in the Royal
Academy of London on a one-year exchange program at the New England
Conservatory, where she is a junior studying with Kim Kashkashian. She plans to audition for the New England
Conservatory and the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin for a Master's degree program. She also plans to play in a string quartet in
Europe, and to perform orchestral chamber and
solo repertoire. She hopes to teach
eventually.
She won the String Prize of the Purcell School
in 2005, the Viola Prize of the Royal Academy in 2007, and an
award from the Sir John Barbirolli Fund.
In 2005, she performed the Bax Viola Sonata in a lunchtime recital at
St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Her quartet
based in London
performed Debussy and Mendelssohn quartets at the Wigmore Hall. In Paris
she was part of a charity concert at the Chateau de Versailles with Jack
Liebeck and Jacques Thibaudet, and performed in the Purcell School Award
concert of the Unesco Mozart Gold Medal. In 2007, she participated in an
orchestra concert of Sir Maxwell Davies’ Strathclyde Concerto for Six Winds and
Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle conducting.
Sir Davies was in the audience.
Zina Levchenko, violin
Zina Levchenko, a twenty-four-year-old violinist and
returning Heifetz Scholar, was born in Moscow in 1984 and had her
first violin lesson at the age of four. At thirteen she won first prize
at the Young Talents of Moscow Competition and
was invited to perform as soloist and ensemble leader throughout Russia.
At fifteen she entered the Tchaikovsky Music College in Moscow,
where she studied with Alvia Vandisheva and graduated with distinction.
Currently a student at the Moscow
State Conservatory, she is improving her skills with Vladimir Ivanov, Head of
the String Department, and Tigran Alikhanov, Principal of the Moscow
Conservatory. She has performed in Russia,
Poland, Finland, Germany,
the USA, Italy, Spain,
and Korea, and was a
prize-winner at both the Modern Art and Education Competition and the Lyapunov
Competition in Moscow.
She recently participated in a master class with the famed Tokyo String Quartet,
and also performs as soloist and Principal Second Violin of the Moscow
Conservatory Chamber Orchestra.
During the summers of 2004
through 2006, she served as Concertmaster of the Asolo Music Festival Symphony
Orchestra in Italy. In
summer 2007, she attended Hot Springs Music Festival and Heifetz International
Music Festival with full scholarships to both. This past year, Zina organized the String
Ensemble “Felicita,” where she serves as Concertmaster, and had a first
performance in May 2008.
Dmitry Volkov, cello
Dmitry Volkov, a
twenty-year-old cellist, was born on October 25, 1987 in Tolyatti, Russia.
He began playing cello at the age of 6. From 2002 to 2006 Dmitry studied at The Moscow
Tchaikovsky Music College. In 2006
Dmitry began studying at The Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Professor N. Shakhovskaya.
Dmitry has had wide experience
performing, including appearances as a soloist with chamber and symphony
orchestras, attending master-classes, and performing in Russia and
abroad. He has participated in various music festivals in China,
Spain, France, Finland, Italy,
and Tunisia.
Dmitry has received grants and scholarships
and has won a number of prizes, including the grand prize at the regional
competitions, Young Musician-Virtuoso and Assemblies of Arts.
Beiliang Zhu, cello
Beiliang Zhu, a twenty-one-year-old
cellist and returning Heifetz Scholar, is a junior at the Eastman School of
Music in the studio of Steven Doane. She
began studying the cello at the age of 4 and studied with Xuping Zou, Liwei Qin
and Yingrong Lin at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music from 1990 to 2005. She
received jury awards in her freshman and sophomore years at Eastman and currently
serves as one of the principal cellists in the Eastman Philharmonia.
Beiliang won the Cello Concerto Competition
at the Eastman School of Music in February 2007, and performed the Walton Cello
Concerto at Eastman Theatre with the Eastman Philharmonia on March 26th,
2007. She auditioned for a
position on the substitute list for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in
October 2007 and currently serves as a part-time cellist for that orchestra. For two summers she was awarded full
scholarships to participate in the Piatigorsky Cello Seminar at the University of Southern California.