Shmuel Ashkenasi
Shmuel Ashkenasi, United States
Shmuel Ashkenasi is an internationally acclaimed violinist and quartet member. He was founder of the famed Vermeer Quartet and remained first violinist for close to forty years. He began his musical training at the Music Academy of Tel Aviv in the class of Ilona Feher. He then moved to the United States, where he studied with Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute of Music. He was awarded 1st Prize at the Merriweather Post Competition in Washington, D.C., was a finalist at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and won 2nd Prize at the 1962 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
He has performed as soloist with leading orchestras (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Berlin, London, Moscow Tokyo) and with distinguished conductors (Stokowski, Böhm, Kempe, Leinsdorf, Kubelik). With the Vermeer Quartet, he performed in every major city and was invited to prestigious music festivals in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The quartet soon achieved international stature as one of the world’s finest ensembles.
Shmuel Ashkenazi is also a noted pedagogue. He is currently a professor at the Curtis Institute of Music and Bard College.