This intense event is in its first round this week, where our girl Elli Choi is one of 63 violinists who made it through video qualifications to play for the panel in Brussels, Belgium. The field will be whittled down to 24 before the second round begins. That next group will be announced Saturday.
Elli played Tuesday, and you can see it here.
Elli Choi has spent more waking hours with a violin in her hands than probably anything else. She spent many quality hours that way through the years at PIMF, most recently as a Student Manager at PIMF’s Winter Break “Music in the Mansion” Mini-Camp for strings in Miami, and last summer at the full Festival in Wayne, PA in June, where she raised the roof on the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Senior Symphony Orchestra in their final concert.
We’re wildly proud of Elli’s achievements through the years (though she’s only 22, ahem!) and agog at how she manages it all (and real talk, envious of those frequent flyer miles.) In case you haven’t had the opportunity to watch her grow into the astonishing artist before the judges in Belgium this week as we at PIMF have, we’ve needle-dropped some Elli-ness from the web for you!
2007: Her then-local paper reports that by age 5, Elli has already performed in more than 20 concerts around the world. “She really enjoys playing in front of an audience,” her dad said. “She’s never nervous. Even when she was performing with a big orchestra she said, ‘Mommy, don’t worry, I can do it.’”
2008: At age 7, tiny Elli wins her division at the Concerto Competition when PIMF was known as Strings International Festival. The Violin Channel posts the video 8 years later to celebrate Elli’s victory at the 2016 Monaco World Music Masters Competition in Monte Carlo.
2013: Elli appeared on “From The Top,” at age 11. From her bio for the broadcast: “Outside of music, she fills her time with gymnastics, running, and dancing. She really enjoys riding in roller coasters and waterslides.”
2018: She performed at The White House, where President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron toasted to their Franco-American alliance. “It was extremely exciting to be performing at the state dinner,” said Choi in an article in her high school paper.
2019: From her bio for The Concours musical international de Montréal: “Brahms is her favorite composer: ‘He has a distinctive sound across all his works. His ability to experiment with rhythm is unparalleled.’”
From that same bio: “While Elli loves playing music, she realizes that the most difficult part of being a violinist is the loneliness.”
WHAT????!!! We’ll have none of that! Elli, your PIMF fam is with you all the way, applauding your accomplishments and giving you standing o’s from our side of the screens as you leave it all on the stage in Brussels. You’ve got this!
Details on the Queen Elisabeth Competition and how to watch here. Bravo a tutti!
