Prize for HfMT young students
The content on this page was translated automatically.
Leonard Fu, a young student in Prof. Tanja Becker-Bender's violin class from 2009 to 2015 as part of the Andreas Franke Academy, was awarded 5th prize at the International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover in 2018
After an international pre-selection, he performed in five rounds of the competition in Hanover between October 11 and 27, 2018; three recitals, solo and with piano, as well as two final rounds. In the first final round, he played Mozart's G minor String Quintet on 1st violin with the Kuss Quartet, and in the second final round, he performed Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover under the direction of Andrew Manze. Leonard Fu's success in the competition has earned him prize money of 8,000 euros as well as a great deal of international attention. All competition rounds can be listened to on YouTube.
Musically oriented curriculum vitae
Leonard Fu
Born in Kiel, Fu began his musical training on the piano at the age of 4. At the age of 7, he began violin lessons with Ina Ketscher and Lara Lev and became a junior student at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and from 2009 to 2015 at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama in Prof. Tanja Becker-Bender's class as part of the Andreas Franke Academy. Since fall 2015, he has been studying with Prof. Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, USA. He has also been influenced by Mauricio Fuks, Boris Garlitsky, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Regis Pasquier, Andreas Röhn, Ronald Copes, Laurie Smukler, Krzysztof Wegrzyn and Pierre Amoyal. Fu's previous chamber music partners have included Manuel Fischer-Dieskau, Nimrod Guez, Gregor Horsch, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Michael Kannen, Nicholas Mann and Vivian Weilerstein.
Fu has already won prizes in various national and international competitions, such as Jugend Musiziert (2013, 1st prize in the national competition, both solo violin and with his piano trio). In 2009, he was the youngest finalist at the "16th International Competition Andrea Postacchini" in Italy in category B (12 - 16 years) and won 2nd prize. In September 2013, Leonard was the youngest participant, finalist and multiple prizewinner at the 32nd International Violin Competition 'Rodolfo Lipizer' in Gorizia, Italy, at the age of 16. In September 2014, he won the main prize, audience prize and music mediation prize at the Tonali14 Grand Prix in Hamburg. In 2018 he was 5th prize winner of the 10th International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hannover, Germany.
In 2017 he won the 2017-18 Honors Ensemble Award at the NEC with his string quartet, the "Tempest String Quartet", the following year the quartet won 1st prize at the International ENKOR Chamber Music Competition and was invited with the Young Artist Fellowship to participate as a quartet at the Perlman Music Program's Chamber Music Festival on Long Island, NY. In 2018, Leonard further founded the NEC Baroque Ensemble, which is the only ensemble focusing on historical performance practice at the university.
Fu has performed all over the world, including in Europe, Russia, China and the USA, and has performed in renowned halls such as the Laeiszhalle, the Elbphilharmonie, the Mariinsky Theater and Jordan Hall. He has already performed as a soloist with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under the direction of Alexander Shelley and with the NDR Radiophilharmonie under the direction of Andrew Manze. He has also performed with the DOGMA Chamber Orchestra and the Heidelberg Philharmonic.
Leonard is currently playing a Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi, 1750-1775, on loan from the Instrument Fund of the German Foundation for Musical Life. He is also a Gerd Bucerius scholarship holder of the Zeit Foundation and the German Foundation for Musical Life as well as a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation, which enables him to study in the USA.