LIVE | Bianca Ciubancan, 16, violin

Today we return live to the Fay and Daniel Levin Performance Studio with 16-year-old violinist Bianca Ciubancan. Joined by pianist Qi Kong, Bianca presents music of Beethoven, Montgomery, Saint-Saëns, and Bach. Violinist Bianca Ciubancan made her solo orchestral debut at age 8 with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago. She has taken top prizes at many competitions including the DePaul Concerto Festival, Walgreens National Concerto Competition, MTNA, and more. She was a top prize winner at the Kloster Schöntal International Violin Competition in southwestern Germany, and in 2019 she won first prize at the Arthur Grumiaux International Violin Competition in Belgium. Bianca has also appeared as a soloist in Carnegie Hall. In 2017, she attended the Rencontre Musicale Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland. In 2018, she participated in Music@Menlo and the Mozarteum Summer Academy. Bianca attended the Heifetz International Institute in 2020 and 2021. In addition, she collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma for the CSO Chicago Youth in Music Festival. She has participated in masterclasses and taken lessons with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Paul Roczek, Blair Milton, and more. Bianca was featured on Episode 386 of NPR’s From the Top in Beverly Hills (2020), and virtual events. As a winner of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ top concerto competition, she performed with the CYSO Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall in November 2021 and her performance was featured on Introductions in January 2022. She also performed as a concerto soloist with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 2022. Bianca is an junior at Northside College Prep in Chicago’s North Park neighborhood. In her free time, Bianca enjoys reading, math, solving Rubik’s cubes, and visiting relatives in Romania.