Award details

"This year I will be tackling one of the most important and renowned pieces in the violin repertoire, Bach’s Ciaconna. A work for solo violin lasting fifteen minutes, it is  technically challenging with long and demanding chordal passages that require vast attention to detail, particularly voicing and left-hand gymnastics that have to be executed with utter precision.  As a result not only does the product have to be completely accurate – it is impossible to hide your mistakes, however minimal – but the performer alone has to also emotionally carry the audience, taking them on a journey that will remain fascinating throughout the length and intimacy of this solo work.

In order to achieve a high standard in its presentation, I propose a harmonic analysis of the Ciaconna as well as historical research regarding the era of its composition, with special focus on the performance practice of the time. This summer I participated in a two-week seminar with the renowned Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik. This gave me a platform from which to begin my research and achieve a historically informed rendition the Ciaconna. By March 9^th I will be ready to present my research in a performance of a piece that has remained integral to the violin repertoire for four hundred years."