Concerto Finalist BBC Young Musicians Competition 2010 and prize-winner in the 2010 Yehudi Menuhin Competition in Oslo

Callum Smart, aged 14, lives with his family in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He began his violin studies at the age of six and was a pupil at the Royal Junior College of Music, London. At the age of nine he entered the Yehudi Menuhin School where he joined the class of Maciej Rakowsi. During this time he performed recitals and concerts in the Menuhin Hall, Dorking and Cobham, including the Delius Festival with Tasmin Little in Bradford and the Bach Double Violin Concerto with the National Children’s Orchestra in the Anvil, Basingstoke.

Over the last three years Callum has been a student at Chetham’s School of Music, where he continues his studies with Maciej Rakowski. His concerto work has included appearances as soloist with the Chetham’s String Orchestra, the Charnwood, Liverpool Mozart and Warwickshire Symphony Orchestras and a performance of the Vieuxtemps Concerto No.5 at the Valdres Festival in Norway. He has given numerous recitals around the UK including the International Lake District Summer Music Festival and Leeds International Concert Series.

In April 2010 Callum was a prize-winner in the 2010 Menuhin Competition in Oslo. He immediately went on to win the string section and to be selected as one of three concerto finalists in the BBC Young Musicians Competition. In the finals he performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Vasily Petrenko at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff broadcast on BBC 2 and Radio 3. He also performed in the Oslo Conservatory of Music with an orchestra from the Norwegian Academy of Music and with the Barratt-Due Music Institute conducted by Per Kristian Skalstad.

This summer Callum gives a series of recitals with Gordon Back including a Radio 3 broadcast from Carreglwyd and a concert at the Cheltenham Festival, and an appearance as soloist at Cadogan Hall with the National Children’s Orchestra. On 17 December Callum returns to Cardiff to perform the Glazunov Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Grant Llewelyn broadcast live by Radio 3. Future plans include concertos with the Northern Chamber Orchestra and Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra.

Callum has taken part in master classes with Andras Keller, Piotr Janowski, Alf-Richard Kraggerud, Stephan Barrat-Due, Almita Vamos, Peter Zazovfsky, and Gordon Back. He is passionate about chamber music and is a member of a piano trio and quartet with whom he has had coaching from Levon Chillingirian, Simon Rowland-Jones, The Carducci Quartet, Andras Keller, Christoph Richter, Johannes Meissl, Thomas Riebl, Marc Johnson, and Pavel Fischer. They have given performances in the London String Symposium at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Northern Chamber Music Festival, the 2009 Greenwich International String Quartet Festival, and the North Norfolk Music Festival.

Callum plays on a Carlo Bergonzi violin that has been generously loaned by J&A Beare.

July 2010