Joshua Weilerstein, a 21-year-old from Brookline, Massachusetts, has won the Malko Competition in Copenhagen, Denmark, open to conductors from 20 to 35 years old. Weilerstein, who graduated this month with a bachelor of music in violin studies from New England Conservatory in Boston, wins €20,000, as well as a DVD of his performances, a hand-painted ceramic trophy from Royal Copenhagen, and concerts with sixteen orchestras, including the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Bergen and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Weilerstein also won Malko’s €1,500 audience prize, based on Internet polling during the competition. Weilerstein is the youngest member of the musical family that includes violinist Donald Weilerstein, Joshua’s father, founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet; pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, Joshua’s mother, who is director of New England Conservatory’s Professional Piano Trio Training Program; and cellist Alisa Weilerstein, Joshua’s sister, who recently received an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Malko’s other 2009 prizewinners were Francesco Angelico, second prize (€10,000); Shizuo Z. Kuwahara, third prize (€7,000); Domingo Garcia, fourth prize (€5,000); Sean Newhouse, fifth prize (€4,000); and Hikaru Ebihara, sixth prize (€3,000).
Posted May 19, 2009
Head shot of Joshua Weilerstein courtesy of Malko Competition; conducting shot by Andrew Hurlbut
