Gwendolyn Masin - Violin
Born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, twenty-six year old Gwendolyn began her musical education at the age of three when her grandmother started teaching her the piano. She took up the violin aged five and within her first year of schooling, gave her first public performance in the Franz Liszt Akademie in Budapest. When she was six, her family moved to Cape Town, Republic of South Africa. By the following year she had become the youngest violinist to receive a Grade 5 diploma in South Africa.
Gwendolyn's family moved to Dublin, Ireland when she was ten, after having spent half a year in Budapest, Hungary and she has since lived in Bern, Switzerland and in Florence, Italy.
Gwendolyn has studied with Maria Kelemen, Ronald Masin, Herman Krebbers, Igor Ozim, Ana Chumachenco, Zakhar Bron and Shmuel Ashkenasi.
Gwendolyn is first prize winner of the South African “Violin Days”, has won most of the Irish Feis Ceoil Junior and Senior category prizes and was a finalist in the Baroness Jordens violin competition in The Hague, the Netherlands. In 2002 Gwendolyn was nominated for “The Outstanding Young Persons Of Switzerland” award for her achievements and she received support for her work from the Swiss Foundation for Promotion of the Interpretative Arts for her exemplary performances.
Gwendolyn has performed extensively in Europe and South Africa and has played as a soloist with various orchestras, including the Bernese Symphony Orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra (Irish radio and television orchestra), the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland with whom she recorded for live radio, the Hibernian Orchestra of Ireland, the Saint Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, the Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra of Moscow, the Savaria Orchestra of Hungary and the Young European Strings Chamber Orchestra.
Gwendolyn is founder and artistic director of "In Search of Lost Time".