The 29-year-old Korean violinist is a laureate of numerous major competitions
The Tokyo-based Nippon Music Foundation has announced the loan of the 1736 ‘Muntz’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ to 29-year-old Korean violinist Youjin Lee. The foundation, which owns 21 instruments by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri ’del Gesù’, loans instruments to promising musicians under the age of 35.
Lee currently studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with Boris Kushnir. She is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank. At the age of 17, in 2013, she won both the Stulberg International String Competition and Irving M. Klein International String Competition. She is also a laureate of the Seoul International Violin Competition, Joseph Joachim Violin Competition and Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition. She has performed with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, Baltimore and San José Chamber Orchestras, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Santa Cruz Symphony, Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra and Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra.
The 1736 ‘Muntz’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ takes its name from H.M. Muntz, a previous owner of the instrument. He purchased the violin from Gand & Bernardel in Paris, and after his death the instrument was passed on to Muntz’s daughter and sold to W.E. Hill & Sons in London in 1911. Since then it passed through the hands of several collectors and musicians such as Alfred C. Marshall, Baroness Ravensdale and Georgio Ciompi. It has also been referred to as the ’Ex-Ciompi’, ‘Ex-Muntz’, and ‘Ex-A.C. Marshall-Muntz’. The Nippon Music Foundation acquired the violin from Ciompi in March 1995.
The instrument’s back is of one piece of maple marked by a broad faint curl descending to the right. The sides are marked by a stronger smaller curl, while the scroll is plainer. The table is of spruce marked by varied grain, part small, part medium, and the varnish is an orange-brown colour on a golden ground.
The Nippon Music Foundation has loaned many fine instruments to musicians such as Ray Chen (1714 ‘Dolphin’ Stradivari violin), Timothy Chooi (1709 ‘Englemann’ Stradivari violin), Pablo Ferrández (1696 ‘Lord Aylesford’ Stradivari cello) and recently to María Dueñas (1710 ‘Camposelice’ Stradivari violin).
Read: Nippon Music Foundation announces loans of Stradivaris to three violinists
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