May 25 From The Top concert with Host Jeremy Denk kicks off violinist Robyn Bollinger's 2019 Summer

Daring, versatile, charismatic and passionate, American violinist Robyn Bollinger is a young artist on the rise. Already recognized for her musical creativity, rich tones, emotional depth, and technical mastery, she is a recipient of a prestigious 2016 Fellowship from the Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship Fund for her multimedia performance project entitled "CIACCONA: The Bass of Time," which she began touring in 2018. Having made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at age twelve, Ms. Bollinger has since performed with orchestras and at festivals nationwide, among them the Boston Pops, the Grand Tetons Music Festival Orchestra, and the music festivals of Aspen, Lake Champlain, Maui, Marlboro, and Rockport.   

2018-19 performance highlights included appearances at the Halcyon, Marlboro and Orcas Island Music Festivals; debuts with the symphony orchestras of Knoxville (Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto), Helena (Piazzolla, Four Seasons of Buenos Aires ), Charleston (Paganini, Violin Concerto No. 1), and California (world premiere by composer-in-residence Katherine Balchwritten specifically for her); and a six-city tour of the East Coast with the Musicians from Marlboro that includes concerts at Connecticut's Greenwich Library Series, Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall in New York City,  Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Series, the Smithsonian Museum's Freer Gallery in D.C., the Union College Concert Series in Schenectady, NY, and Boston's Isabella Steward Gardner Museum's Sunday Afternoon Series. Ms. Bollinger also performed in and around Boston with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble and the Grammy- nominated ensemble A Far Cry, among other engagements.

 

 

A sought-after collaborator, Ms. Bollinger is a popular figure on the chamber music stage, both as a member of the renowned, Grammy-nominated Boston-based ensemble A Far Cry, and for her work at Festivals, and on chamber music series. She has performed in Midori's Music Sharing International Community Engagement Program "ICEP" in Japan, performed in recital in Japan's Phoenix Hall, (Osaka), Oji Hall, (Tokyo), and Tokyo National Arts Center, and served as a Young Artist Fellow for Music for Food, the national musician-led initiative for local hunger relief. A former member of the Newman String Quartet, which took the silver medal at the 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, she has also served as a member of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival's Young Trio in Residence (2015 - 2017). Collaborations include the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Jupiter Chamber Players at Lincoln Center, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Mistral Music, and with members of the Borromeo, Cleveland, Juilliard, Johannes, Lydian, Mendelssohn, and Pro Arte quartets, among others.

 

In addition to the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship, Ms. Bollinger's talent has been recognized with numerous awards, among them an Entrepreneurial Musicianship Grant from New England Conservatory for her ground-breaking "Project Paganini," a performance project featuring all twenty-four Paganini Caprices. Ms. Bollinger has received top prizes at many international competitions, among them the International Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna, the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in France, and the Louis Spohr International Competition in Germany. She has been specially recognized with prizes for her performances of Bach and Beethoven works at several competitions. A familiar figure on radio, Ms. Bollinger came to national attention through her 2014 residency on PRI's "Performance Today" and several appearances on NPR's "From the Top."  

 

Born in Philadelphia in 1991, Robyn Bollinger is a former recipient of the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA, where she received both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees with honors. Ms. Bollinger's former teachers include Miriam Fried, Soovin Kim, and Paul Kantor. From July 2013 to May 2017, Ms. Bollinger played a 1778 Joseph and Antonio Gagliano violin on generous loan from the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute Instrument Bank. As of May 2017, she now performs on a beautiful 2017 violin made by the world-renowned luthier Samuel Zygmuntowicz, on loan from a private collection.