Biography
Julia Hwang gave her professional solo debut with the English National Baroque Chamber Orchestra at the age of nine, performing Bach's Concerto in A minor. She recorded two CDs and debuted with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra by the age of twelve. She has just given her debut at the Wigmore Hall, and other recent concerts include recitals at St Martin in the Fields and the Royal Albert Hall, and performances of the Bruch, Korngold and Mendelssohn concertos in the UK and South Korea.
She is a Fulbright Scholar, and will be completing her studies under Ani Kavafian at Yale University. She completed her undergraduate degree as a scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, graduating with the 2017 Larmor Award. She began her violin studies at the age of seven with Richard Crabtree at Clifton College, followed by Itzhak Rashkovsky in London. Having been offered a full postgraduate scholarship from the Royal College of Music, she graduated with the highest recital mark of the year.
She is a cultural ambassador for the BRACE Alzheimer’s Research, and is also a Concordia Foundation Artist, which has led to many performances in London’s hospitals and care centres. Other charity performances have included performing at the 2012 Violins of Hope music festival in North Carolina, USA, with Shlomo Mintz; a collaboration in Israel with Vadim Gluzman; charity concerts at Highgrove to raise funds for The Prince’s Trust alongside Julian Lloyd-Webber; and innumerable further concerts to raise money for, among others, The Alzheimer’s Society, the NSPCC and MacMillan Cancer Relief.
Julia has appeared many times on live television and radio through the BBC and ITV, and was featured in a BBC4 documentary about ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Her performance of this work was specifically chosen by the BBC and the documentary has been re-broadcast on many occasions due to popular demand. Her latest CD, featuring works by Grieg, Lutoslawski, Wieniawski and Vaughan Williams, was reviewed by Gramophone as displaying a “model of expressive purity”.
She is the winner of numerous prizes and awards, including the Hattori Foundation Postgraduate Award, the annual Musicians Company Award, the Countess of Munster Award, and Talent Unlimited.
She plays on a Peter Guarnerius of Mantua violin c.1698, on generous loan from the Alderson Trust.
