First Prize, 2003 Concert Artists Guild International Competition

Hailed as “a remarkable and auspicious talent” (The Sydney Morning Herald) and praised for her “transforming intensity and beauty of tone” (New York Times), Australian violinist Asmira Woodward-Page has received accolades internationally for her passionate intensity and colorful artistry.

In 2003, she won First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, along with the Victor and Sono Elmaleh prize and numerous performance prize engagements throughout the US.

Highlights of Ms. Woodward-Page’s current and upcoming schedule include recitals in New York, New Jersey, Vermont, and Arkansas, and featured orchestral engagements include her November 2005 debut in Canada, performing the Brahms violin concerto with the Oakville Symphony Orchestra of Ontario, conducted by Roberto de Clara.

In March 2004, Ms. Woodward-Page made her New York solo recital debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on the CAG Series, and her performance was praised in both The New York Times and the June 2004 issue of The Strad magazine, the latter of which cited her “powerful, well-played accounts of the Prokofiev Op.80 Sonata and Bartók’s Op.21, and the premiere of the suite entitled Pieces of Eight.”

Other recent highlights include a five-city recital tour of Mexico, concerto appearances with the Evanston Symphony and the Colgate University Orchestra, and chamber music concerts with the Omega Ensemble in New York City and at the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival.

Ms. Woodward-Page has made numerous orchestral appearances internationally, under the baton of such conductors as Jahja Ling, Michael Christie, Muhai Tang and Nicholas Braithwaite. In her native Australia, she has performed with many major orchestras including the Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Queensland Symphony, Willoughby Symphony and the Academy of Melbourne.

In the United States she has been guest soloist with the Indiana University School of Music Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Orchestra of New Jersey.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, she has concertized throughout Australia, Asia, Europe and North and South America, collaborating with many fine artists including André Previn, Atar Arad, Gilbert Kalish, Lara St. John, Corey Cerovsek, Jennifer Frautschi and Scott Davie. Her numerous festival appearances include the Aspen and Ravinia Music Festivals, and she recently toured with “Ravinia’s Rising Stars,” performing at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with Miriam Fried.

A passionate advocate of contemporary music, Ms. Woodward-Page leads the twenty-member, conductor-less ensemble SONYC (String Orchestra of New York City), and she is the violinist of counter)induction, a critically acclaimed seven-member new music composer/performer collective based in Manhattan.

Over the last several years, Ms. Woodward-Page has won many awards internationally, garnering prizes at the Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition of Belgium and winning Sydney’s 2MBS-FM Young Performer of the Year.

Other recent achievements include the City of Sydney Violin Award (four-time winner), Australian Music Foundation in London Award, the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Music Award, the Ernest Llewellyn String Award, and First Prize in the Gisbourne International Wind, String and Brass Competition, Australia’s Dorcas McClean Violin Competition, and the Indiana University Concerto Competition.

Asmira Woodward-Page began her study of violin in Sydney with Harry Curby, and later became a student of Miriam Fried and Paul Biss at the Indiana University School of Music, where she received her Bachelor of Music and Artist Diploma, and was awarded the Performer’s Certificate for outstanding musical performance by a unanimous vote. She went on to earn her Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School where she studied with Robert Mann. She is currently a member of the music faculty at Hunter College Elementary School and the Church Street School for Music and Art in New York City.

Ms. Woodward-Page is heard frequently on national radio and TV in Australia, where she recently returned for concerto performances, an ABC recording for broadcast, recitals with Australian pianist Scott Davie, and the launch of her new CD for the Artworks label: The Australian Album, which has since been selected by both ABC-FM and 2MBS-FM as CD of the Week. She recently appeared on the cover of Australia's Fine Music Magazine and was the subject of two ABC TV features: "The Little Box that Sings" and Andrea Stretton's "Sunday Afternoon."

March 2005