First Prize Winner of 15th Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition – 2016
At an age of only 20, Veriko Tchumburidze won First Prize in the prestigious Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition, immediately attracting the attention of the music world.
Born in Adana (Turkey) in 1996, Veriko Tchumburidze began her studies at Mersin University State Conservatory at the age of four as a student of Selahattin Yunkuş and Lili Tchumburidze. She continued her studies in 2010 with Prof. Dora Schwarzberg as a scholar of the “Young Musicians on World Stages” (YMWS) project, created and mentored by Güher & Süher Pekinel, with financial support of Tüpraş, at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna.
Having been accepted to the Musikhochschule München at age 19, Tchumburidze has continued her studies with Ana Chumachenco, attending Master Classes in various countries with, among others, Prof. Igor Ozim and Prof. Dora Schwarzberg.
Tchumburidze plays a violin made by Giambattista Guadagnini in 1756, provided thanks to the generosity of Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben in 2016.
When only 8 years old, Tchumburidze won first prize at the Gülden Turalı National Violin Competition in 2004 and in 2006 she received the first prize at the Georgian National Competition. In 2012, at age 16, she won first prize at the 7th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, achieving highest score and unanimous verdict of the jury. Accordingly she was invited to several international concerts and festivals in different countries, including like Russia, Switzerland and Germany.
In 2013 Tchumburidze was selected Best Emerging Musician by the Andante music magazine in Turkey and performed at the opening concert of the 41st Istanbul Music Festival with the Borusan Symphony Orchestra. In the same year she was invited to participate in the Seiji Ozawa Academy Master Class and to the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. She went on to continue her studies with the famous violinist and pedagogue Ana Chumachenco, with whom she is working currently in Munich.
Her concert with the YMWS scholars in March 2014 at the Zurich Tonhalle Chamber Series was recorded live and released as a DVD with interviews of DRS Radio. Immediately after the DVD release in 2014, Tchumburidze was invited to perform with the Swiss Chamber Orchestra at the Culture and Convention Center in Lucerne. After this concert she was chosen by Orpheum Musik Stiftung Zürich, which prepares extraordinary musicians for a world career, to release a CD series together with the Munich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Howard Griffiths on the occasion of Orpheum’s 25th anniversary, in cooperation with Sony Classical.
Tchumburidze was the first ever Turkish/ Georgian musician to be accepted to participate in the famous 15th Tchaikovsky International Competition in 2015. Tchumburidze has performed with international orchestras, including the Züricher Kammerorchester, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, the Musikkollegium Winterthur and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra.
Together with the YMWS scholars she played in 2015 as a member of the Trio Arte ensemble with cellist Dorukhan Doruk and pianist Yunus Tuncalı. The trio played recitals at the Boğaziçi Albert Long Hall, the Notre Dame de Sion Concert Hall and at the D-Marin Classical Music Festival. The ensemble played more concerts in the chamber music series at the Süreyya Opera, the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, playing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Pekinels together with Istanbul and Izmir Symphony Orchestras, as well as with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra Ankara. In April 2016 she took part with Trio Arte in the Oslo ECMA chamber music festival.
In January 2016 she performed in Zürich to promote her first CD released by Sony, giving numerous interviews to the most important international press. That month, Tchumburidze recorded John Williams’ “Schindler’s List” CD for Sony Classical together with the Brandenburgisches Kammerorchester and Howard Griffiths. Thanks to her performances Tchumburidze was elected by Orpheum Stiftung to headline the opening concert of the Zürich Opernhaus Film Festival on 1 October 2016.
In June 2016, as member of Trio Arte, Tchumburidze received first prize in the chamber music category at the Pietro Argento International Music Competition at Gioia del Colle in Italy. Immediately after the competition she played a recital with world famous violist Gérard Caussé at the 44th International Istanbul Music Festival. The performance was filmed. Trio Arte also performed the world premiere of renowned composer Özkan Manav’s work “Ludus Modalis” written especially for this event and dedicated to Trio Arte.
