Vesna Gruppman

About

Critically acclaimed for “impecabble taste and beautiful  singing tone” – (Gramophone Magazine) Vesna  Stefanovic Gruppman is equally renown as both violinist and violist.

Her  solo career began when she was still a child in her native country Yugoslavia. By the age of sixteen, she had performed as soloist with several ensembles including the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic and the Prague Philharmonic.  She was  the first and the youngest artist to win the National Violin Competition in Yugoslavia  seven times in a row , and in 1973 she became  the First Prize winner of  the Jaroslav Kocian International Violin Competition.

A graduate of the Moscow Special School of Music, Ms. Gruppman received  Doctorate in Performance and Pedagogy from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where she studied with legendary teachers:  David Oistrakh, Yuri Yankelevich and Igor Bezrodny. She has also studied with the legendary violinist Jasha Heifetz in 1980 and 1981in the US.

Today, Vesna Gruppman is critically acclaimed and recognized as both the soloist and chamber musician.   As a testimony to an active performing schedule  the list of  the orchestra Ms. Gruppman has appeared with  such orchestras as  Mariinsky Orchestra of St. Petersburg,  Academy of St Martin In the Fields,  Edmonton Symphony (Canada), San Diego Symphony, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Strings,  Utah Symphony, etc.  Some of the prestigious halls she performed in include Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall and  St. John’s Smith Square in London, Rotterdam Philharmonic Hall, Marinsky Zaal, Kiev’s Philharmonic Hall, the Mozart Hall in Prague.

Ms  Gruppman’s solo performances and recordings have received  impressive  reviews in many international publications such as  Gramophone Magazine, American Record Guide, Classical Disc Digest and The Strad Magazine.

She has recorded solo and chamber music CD’s  for  Biddulph Records, Koch International, Naxus,  and the  DVD  for the

Video Artist International (named “ An Evening of Chamber Music”). The Gruppman Duo recording of Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for two violins and Orchestra was  Grammy Honored  in 1995, and became the “best seller” for Koch International recording company that year.

Ms Gruppman  played under the button of Mstislav Rostropovich, Genadi Rozdestvenski and Valeri Gergiev.

Some   renown composers have written and dedicated their compositions to the successful Igor and Vesna Gruppman Duo. Among those  are  Russian composer Vladimir Tarnopolsky,  Kirill Umansky  and the Dutch composer Paul Van Brugge.  In 2010 the Netherlands Performing Arts Foundation awarded a commission to Vesna and Igor Gruppman for composer Paul van Brugge’s concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra. The premiere  took place in March  of 2011 with the Orchestra at Temple Square in Salt Lake City Utah.

Ms. Gruppman’s 2017-2018  season featured  recitals and chamber music tours of Asia and the United States and the recording of the Concerto for two violins and orchestra with Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow  written and dedicated to the Gruppman Duo by  the American composer Michael Fine.

She has served on o faculty of California State University, San Diego State University, Brigham Young University as a full time violin and viola  professor and the head of the Violin department,  and presently is  a professor of violin and viola at the Rotterdam Conservatory in the  Netherlands.

As the Co-founder of the Gruppman International Music Institute, V.Gruppman has build a generation of successful violinist, among them  winners of international competitions and  renown soloists. American String Teachers Association has honored  V.Gruppman with the College Teacher of the Year Award in 2002. In 2013 V.Gruppman was featured in the Strad Magazine together with her student – internationally renown violinist Eugene Ugorski. She and her husband Igor Gruppman are the Co-founders of the Gruppman International Violin  Institute.