Feb.1, 2005 – Arts Alive's Concerts in the Garden season will wrap up with a return performance by world-renowned Bulgarian violin prodigy, Bella Hristova, on Wednesday, Feb. 9.
Still a teenager, Hristova has already dazzled audiences across Europe and America. In 1999, at the tender age of 13, she left her home in Bulgaria to study violin with Stephen Shipps at the Meadowmount School of Music in New York. By far the youngest among an international group of young professionals at the prestigious school, she played in a concert of the complete Solo Sonatas of Belgian violin virtuoso Eugene Ysaye that was showcased by Strad Magazine.
Only a few months later Bella took first place at the International Enesco Competition in Bucharest, Romania. She returned to Eastern Europe in 2000 to win first prize in the International Kocian Competition, and in 2001 she took the competition's triple crown, winning the Grand Prize, the European Union Prize and the Barenreiter Prize.
Playing a 1655 Amati once owned by the famous Louis Krasner, Bella Hristova's exciting style and youthful exuberance bring audiences the world over to their feet. Her repertoire includes the classical masters, pieces representative of her Eastern European heritage and lots in between.
The concert will begin at 8 p.m. and Hristova will be accompanied by pianist Dmitri Vorobiev. Tickets are $30 in advance at Tillett Gallery, and $35 at the door. A prix-fixe dinner will be available beginning at 6 p.m. for $30 not including drinks and gratuity. For more information or reservations, call 775-1929.
Major sponsors of Arts Alive are the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, Globalvest Management Company, the Peter Gruber Foundation, Paradise Radio 93.5 FM, Helen Kelbert, Rajiv and Alisa Desai, and the law firm of Dudley, Topper and Feuerzeig LLP.