Elena Urioste

Elena Urioste, violin

Violinist Elena Urioste, hailed by The Washington Post as “a drop-dead beauty who plays with equal parts passion, sensuality, brains and humor,” was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2012 to 2014 and a first-place laureate in both the Junior and Senior divisions of the Sphinx Competition. She has given acclaimed performances with major orchestras throughout the United States, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and Boston Pops; the New York and Buffalo philharmonics; and the Chicago, San Francisco, National, Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Austin, Charleston, Richmond, and San Antonio symphony orchestras. Abroad, Urioste has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Edmonton Symphony, Würzburg Philharmonic, and Hungary’s Orchestra Dohnányi Budafok and MAV orchestras. She has performed regularly as a featured soloist in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and has given recitals in such distinguished venues as Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Sage Gateshead in Newcastle, Bayerischer Rundfunk Munich, and the Mondavi Center at the University of California-Davis.

Highlights of her 2017-2018 season include solo debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, IRIS Orchestra, and England’s Philharmonia and Opera North orchestras; return engagements with the Delaware and Asheville symphony orchestras; and three separate concerto and chamber-music appearances in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Recent seasons have seen return performances with the Cleveland and Hallé Orchestras and the Chicago and Detroit symphony orchestras; a recital debut at the Kennedy Center with pianist Michael Brown; and a series of live BBC Radio 3 broadcasts from England’s Roman River Music Festival.

Urioste made her debut at Carnegie Hall's Isaac Stern Auditorium in 2004 and has returned frequently as soloist. She has collaborated with acclaimed conductors Sir Mark Elder, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Christoph Eschenbach, Robert Spano, and Keith Lockhart; pianists Mitsuko Uchida, Dénes Várjon, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn; cellists Peter Wiley, Colin Carr, and Carter Brey; violists Kim Kashkashian and Michael Tree; and violinists Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, and Cho-Liang Lin. An avid chamber musician, Urioste has been a featured artist at the Marlboro, Ravinia, La Jolla, Bridgehampton, Moab, and Sarasota Music Festivals, as well as Switzerland’s Sion-Valais International Music Festival, the Verbier Festival’s winter residency at Schloss Elmau. She is a regular guest at the Roman River Music Festival in Essex, England. Urioste performs extensively in recital with pianists Michael Brown and Tom Poster.

Other accomplishments include first prize at the Sion International Violin Competition; the inaugural Sphinx Medal of Excellence, presented by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor; articles in Symphony, Latina, and La Revista Mujer magazines; and the lead female role in But Not For Me, an independent feature film that was honored with Audience Choice and Best Original Score awards at the 2015 Brooklyn Film Festival. Her second album, Echoes, a recital disc with Michael Brown, was released on BIS Records in October 2016. A disc of violin and piano miniatures with Tom Poster will be released in 2017. Urioste is the founder and artistic director of Chamber Music by the Sea, an annual summer chamber-music festival on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and is co-founder and artistic director of Intermission Sessions & Retreat, a new program that combines music and yoga.

Urioste is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank, and Ida Kavafian. She completed graduate studies with Joel Smirnoff at The Juilliard School. Other notable teachers include David Cerone, Choong-Jin Chang, Soovin Kim, and Rafael Druian.

The outstanding instruments being used by Urioste are an Alessandro Gagliano violin, Naples c. 1706, and a Nicolas Kittel bow, both on generous extended loan from the private collection of Dr. Charles E. King through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.