Rachell Ellen Wong First Baroque Artist To Receive Avery Fisher Career Grant

Highlighting a banner season that included graduating from The Juilliard School with a Masters in Music in Historical Performance, performances in Poland, France, Norway and the United Kingdom, serving as a 2019-2020 Mercury Chamber Orchestra Juilliard Fellow and as an American Fellow of The English Concert, American violinist Rachel Ellen Wong has just been announced as a recipient of a prestigious 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is the first Baroque artist in the respected Program's history. The news was officially announced this evening at 5:00 pm EST on WQXR, New York's all-classical music station, by Elliott Forrest, station host and voice of the Avery Fisher Career Grants.

Ms. Wong's upcoming 2020 summer performances include a recital at Virginia's Mary Baldwin University in June, and in July, concerts on the Heifetz International Music Institute's Celebrity Series in Virginia, with the historical instrument ensemble Dioscuri, hosted by Valley of the Moon Music Festival in California, and at the Mostly Mozart Festival with the Mark Morris Dance Company at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The Avery Fisher Career Grant announcement of the 2020 recipients also featured previously recorded performances by all 2020 recipients (Rachell's performances of Giuseppe Tartini's Sonata in G minor, B.g 5, "The Devil's Trill" (III. Andante-Allegro) and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's Violin Sonata no. 5 in E minor), along with short recipient interviews. It will be rebroadcast on Saturday, March 28 at 7:00 PM by WQXR on 105.9 FM and streamed at www.wqxr.org.

A rising star on both the historical performance and modern violin stages, violinist Rachell Ellen Wong has performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Costa Rica, Panama, China, Norway and New Zealand. A sought-after collaborator, her growing reputation as one of the top historical performers of her generation has resulted in appearances with such respected ensembles as the American Bach Soloists and The Academy of Ancient Music, and tours with Bach Collegium Japan, Les Arts Florissants, and others. Equally accomplished on the modern violin, Ms. Wong has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá and Seattle Symphony.
Passionate about chamber music as well as orchestral and recital music, Ms. Wong is a founding member of New Amsterdam Consort, a New York-based period-instrument string ensemble comprising Juilliard graduates specializing in one-on-a-part performances of music from the Renaissance through the high Baroque. With acclaimed keyboardist David Belkovski, she co-founded Dioscuri, a dynamic, versatile ensemble that focuses on music from all periods on historical instruments. Notable past concerts include performing Bottesini's Gran Duo Concertante with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá, the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Orquesta Sinfónica in Costa Rica, recitals with world-renowned pianists Anton Nel and Byron Schenkman, a 16-concert, four-city tour of New Zealand with the New Zealand String Quartet which included the New Zealand premiere of Alexander Ekman's Cacti for on stage string quartet and ballet with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and a recital in Wellington, New Zealand featuring works by Bartok, Schubert and Beethoven, also with the New Zealand String Quartet. Ms. Wong served as Artist-in-Residence with the Heifetz International Music Institute in Staunton, Viriginia from 2017-2019. A native of Seattle, Washington, Rachell Ellen Wong counts among her numerous awards and honors grand prizes in the 52nd Sorantin International String Competition, the International Crescendo Music Awards, the Heida Hermanns International Competition, and Seattle's Gallery Concert's Next Generation Competition. Recently, she placed in the XXI J.S. Bach International Competition in Germany. She is the recipient of a 2019 Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant and a 2017 Kovner Fellowship, both from The Juilliard School; a 2013 Barbara and David Jacobs Fellowship Award and a 2013 Artist Excellence Award, both from Indiana University; a Distinguished Performance, King Award at the 2012 Young Artists Nat'l Competition; the Starling Distinguished Violinist Scholarship from UT-Austin, from 2009 - 2013, and the 2009 Cascade Symphony's Mori Simon Scholarship, of which she was the first recipient. www.rachellwong.com