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Violinist Robert Switala, a home-schooled 15-year-old from Grapevine, Texas began lessons at the age of 6. He has been a student of Jan Mark Sloman for 5 years and annually attends Mr. Sloman’s summer program, The Institute for Strings. At age 12, he soloed with the Meadows Symphony as Grand Prize Winner of the 2005 Dallas Symphonic Festival, and, in 2006, was a top winner in the MTNA National Solo Competition, top prize winner in the DSO Lynn Harrell Competition, and was featured on the nationally syndicated NPR radio show “From the Top.” He was selected as the 2007 Texas Winner in the biennial ASTA Solo Competition and is the 2007 & 2008 First Place Strings Division Winner of the TASO Juanita Miller Concerto Competition. After winning Junior First Place in the 2007 Sphinx Competition in Detroit, Robert soloed with the Florida Orchestra, New World Symphony, and Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and has upcoming engagements with the Colorado and Nashville Symphony Orchestras in May. Robert and his sister were featured on the National PBS television show, “From the Top: Live at Carnegie Hall” which will be airing in the Spring of 2008.
Robert is a recipient of the Texas Commission on the Arts 2008 Young Masters grant, which provides for young artists to further their studies in their chosen arts disciplines by studying under a master instructor. Robert studies with the internationally acclaimed concert violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program (PMP) in Shelter Island, NY in the summers and at the PMP Winter Residency in Sarasota, FL. Recently, he performed with the Perlman TNT Quartet at the Neue Galerie in NYC and in Palm Beach. In addition to sharing his love of chamber music with his sister, with whom he trades off playing viola, he also enjoys tennis, robotics, chess, computers, and reading. |
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2008 Grand Prize Winners |
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Pianist Thomas Schwan, of Italian-German origin, was born in Milan in 1985. He started his musical education at the age of eight. In 2006 he graduated in Piano with the highest marks and honors from the Conservatory of Vicenza under the guidance of Prof. Alessandro Fortuna, studying also with the Russian pianist Liudmila Georgievskaya. While pursuing his degree in Piano, he studied Composition in the Conservatories of Turin and Milan with Prof. Gianni Possio and Prof. Elisabetta Brusa.
Since 2007, Thomas Schwan resides in Dallas (Texas), where he was awarded the “Joel Estes Tate” scholarship to study with the acclaimed Spanish pianist Joaquin Achucarro at Southern Methodist University. He has played numerous solo recitals in the United States, Italy and Russia, receiving constant appreciation both from audiences and critics.
Thomas Schwan is first-prize winner in many competitions in Italy and the United States, including the international competition “Città di Valentino” in Castellaneta in 2003, the national competition “Città di Massa” in 2005, the international competition “Lorenzo Perosi” in Tortona in 2006 and the Hubbard Solo and Chamber Music Young Artist Competition in Rockwall (Texas) in 2008.
Also active as a composer, he has written music for documentary films and for stage plays, as well as various piano, chamber and vocal works, some of which have been published and performed in Italy and abroad. He often performs his own music in concerts. |
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Contact us by phone 972-772-7692 |
