The highly acclaimed Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen started to play the violin at the tender age of three at the local music school, outside the city of Hamar, Norway. A year later, she continued with legendary Norwegian violinist Arve Tellefsen in Oslo, with whom she studied for nearly ten years. Later, she studied with Stephan Barratt Due at the Barratt Due Institute of Music and for the last ten years has been a student of the world-renowned Russian professor Zakhar Bron, with whom she completed two Master's degrees at Zürich University of the Arts, Switzerland. She has also participated in masterclasses with Ana Chumachenco, Ivry Gitlis, Donald Weilerstein and Pamela Frank.
As a solo performer, Mari Samuelsen has given concerts at several of the most important venues, including Carnegie Hall, New York; Théatre des Champs-Élysées, Paris; Tonhall, Zürich; Victoria Hall, Geneva; Salle Garnier, Monte Carlo; Wolf Trap Center, Washington DC and the Kremlin and Tschaikowsky Hall in Moscow. Over the years, Mari has worked with several world-renowned orchestras and conductors such as David Zinmann, Seiji Ozawa, Vasily Petrenko, Howard Griffiths, Alexander Shelley, Philippe Bender, Daniele Callegari and in masterclass with Sir Simon Rattle.
She is a devoted chamber musician and has collaborated in festivals with international musicians such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Truls Mørk, Frans Helmerson, Nicolas Altstaedt, Antoine Tamestit, Lawrence Power, Igor Levit, Inon Barnatan, Denis Kozhukhin, Mayuko Kamio, Guy Braunstein, Kirill Troussov and Measha Brueggergosman .
Mari Samuelsen has received several prizes including three Norwegian cultural honour-prizes. She has also received a number of national and international scholarships, and is the only Scandinavian ever to win the Crescendo prize from the Meister Foundation, Switzerland.
Mari, along with her brother Håkon, is signed exclusively to Mercury Classics (Universal), and in May 2015 they released their first joint recording including James Horner’s double concerto, Pas de Deux, commissioned by them. She will perform Max Richter’s Four Seasons Recomposedi in Copenhagen, and at festivals this summer throughout Europe including in the UK and Italy.
Mari Samuelsen plays a fine G. B. Guadagnini (Turin 1773) generously on loan from Anders Sveaas charitable foundation, Oslo.
Further information is available at www.samuelsenmusic.com.
May 2015.