RAY IWAZUMI
Violin

The Juilliard School; International Performing Artist & Composer

Ray Iwazumi performs numerous concerts in the U.S.A. and abroad. In New York, he has given performances in and around Lincoln Center, appearing both in solo and chamber music at The Juilliard Theater, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Weill Hall, The Donnell Library Hall, and The Bruno Walter Auditorium. He has also been featured as a chamber musician in the Focus! festivals and as a composer-performer in the Beyond the Machine festivals at Lincoln Center.

Centering his performing activities in New York City, Tokyo, Japan, and Brussels, Belgium, he has also performed in The Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, and South Korea. With a keen interest in musicological research, Dr. Iwazumi’s in-depth research on Eugène Ysaÿe’s Six Sonates pour violon seul, Op. 27 has brought forth significant findings on these landmark masterworks, and his concerts and CD of these works have been critically acclaimed. He also shares his leading expertise of this repertoire through lectures, lecture-performances, and masterclasses worldwide, and has also written several articles on the subject, including one for The Strad, and a continuing series in the Japanese journal String.

He currently researches and catalogs the rare materials and manuscripts held in the Louis Persinger Special Collection and Viola Mitchell Collection at The Juilliard School, is active as a music research consultant, and teaches the Violin Seminar at The Juilliard School.

Born in Seattle, Washington (U.S.A.), his first public performance was with the Clear Lake Symphony in Texas at the age of six, performing the Bach Violin Concerto in A minor. At seven, he gave his first public recital in Galveston, Texas. Moving to Canada, he won numerous awards at the Kiwanis Music Festival, and first place twice in the Canadian Music Competition. In 1988, he moved to New York to attend The Juilliard School, where he became a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay and won competitions both at The Juilliard School and at the Aspen Music Festival.

Dr. Iwazumi’s principal teachers have been Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, and Igor Oistrakh. He completed his Bachelors, Masters, and Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at The Juilliard School studying with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang, and resided in Belgium to study intensively with Igor Oistrakh under the auspices of a Fulbright grant. In Brussels, he received two additional Masters degrees (one in Violin and another in Chamber Music) from the Koninklijk Muziekconservatorium Brussel (Brussels Royal Conservatory) with the rank of ‘highest distinction’ and perfect scores in violin performance for both degrees.

In New York, his outstanding research and work earned him the prestigious Richard F. French Doctoral Prize from The Juilliard School. As a Starling Fellow at The Juilliard School, Dr. Iwazumi also taught as a teaching assistant to the late Dorothy DeLay. www.rayiwazumi.com