3rd Prize Viola 2023 Ionel Ungureanu, Germany
· Biography
Ionel Ungureanu was born into a family of musicians in Bad Dürkheim in 1995. He received his first violin lessons from his parents at the age of four. His first performances followed early on: in 2003, the then eight-year-old Ionel won second prize at the Concours International de Violon Alexander Glazunov in Paris. From 2004 to 2008, he always won first prizes in the "Jugend musiziert" competition. In 2006, he began studies for highly gifted students at Pre College Cologne with Ute Hasenauer and continued his education with Marco Rizzi in Mannheim in 2011. In 2014 followed the bachelor studies with Nachum Erlich in Karlsruhe. During this time he also began composing and arranging, played in baroque ensembles and founded the Sinti/Jazz band Borsch4Breakfast. He was also a violist in the Erlich Quartet. Fascinated by the sound of the viola, he moved to Munich after his bachelor's degree in violin to study viola with Roland Glassl. Ionel Ungureanu is a principal violist in the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, a scholarship holder of Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz and an academist of the WDR Sinfonieorchester. He won the third prize at the 72. International ARD Music Competition.
