I mentioned yesterday that Annika really inspired me on the violin and she was amazing. Well, I found an article about her and thought you all might be interested. This is not 100% accurate, but it has some pretty interesting facts.......just in case you want to know about an amazing person! If you ever get a chance to see her perform......TAKE IT!
Annika made her orchestral debut at age eleven performing Concerto No. 3 in G Major by W. A. Mozart. For this occasion honoring Mozart’s 250th birthday, she composed and performed her own cadenza. Following a celebrated debut, she was invited to perform on WVEC-TV13 “News at Noon.” Her young career in bloom, she has performed in recitals and with orchestras across the U.S., on the east and west coasts, Hawaii, and internationally in Italy, Austria, Belgium, Germany and Spain. By invitation, audition, and as first prize winner in numerous competitions, she has been a featured guest soloist in dozens of concerts with nearly 20 professional and community orchestras and ensembles.
Annika is an eleventh grade honor student at Laurel Springs Academy for the Gifted & Talented and an all honors scholarship student at The Juilliard School, Pre-College Division, in New York City. She is a violin major studying with distinguished artist-teacher Shirley Givens and a conducting student of award-winning resident conductor George Stelluto. Annika studied piano for ten years with Mary Wick, Director of Norfolk Academy’s School of the Arts. In June 2011, she performed her 10th National Piano Guild Audition, each program comprising ten memorized works, and was declared a National Winner with Superior Plus-Top Talent Rating and awarded the Paderewski Gold Medal by the American College of Musicians. Annika received her academic foundation at Norfolk Academy and, in 2007, at her own Sixth Grade Graduation, gave a heartfelt violin performance where, in addition to scholastic prizes, she was awarded the Bessie Craig Ramsey Music Award for “outstanding contribution to the musical life of the school.” She was profiled as a “scholar-musician” in the October 2009 Hampton Roads edition of the national magazine Skirt!. Annika is continuing her piano studies at Juilliard this year.
A recipient of many awards and honors, in 2007, Annika was named Virginia’s Distinguished Student for “excellence in music and leadership” by the National Association for Gifted Children. In June 2010, she was selected by national audition as one of four young violinists to perform in recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. In May 2011, she was invited to perform as soloist accompanied by concert pianist Christopher O’Riley on National Public Radio’s award-winning program “From the Top.” The show aired nationally the week of June 27 and can be heard at http://www.fromthetop.org/node/1092. In August 2010, she was highlighted in the “Milestones” feature in the Virginian-Pilot Ledger-Star “Beacon.”
At age 13, Annika was Grand Prize Winner of the 21st Annual Young Performing Artists Competition in Hampton, Virginia. She is a two-time York River Symphony Young Artists Concerto Competition winner and three-time Bay Youth Orchestras of Virginia Concerto Competition winner. Most recently, she was awarded the $500 First Prize in the Junior Division of the 2010-2011 American String Teachers Association (ASTA) National Solo Competition and a $2500 First Prize Instrumental State Music Scholarship. She was First Prize Winner in the 2010 Richmond Philharmonic Concerto Competition and First Place Instrumentalist Winner of the 2010 40th Annual Richmond Symphony Concerto Competition, following which she received an invitation to appear live on CBS-6/WTVR “Virginia This Morning.” In March 2010, she was the subject of the “Close-Up” feature in the Virginian-Pilot Ledger-Star “Beacon.”
Annika’s summer studies include scholarships to Meadowmount School of Music and to Heifetz International Institute of Music where she was invited to perform in a tribute concert for the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. In 2011, she was awarded the InterHarmony International Music Festival Bach Performance Award offering four weeks of study and performance opportunities in Germany. Annika has performed in master classes for many distinguished artists, including Curtis Macomber, David Kim, Charles Castleman, Irina Muresanu, and Elmar Oliveira. Additionally, she has received private instruction from Sylvia Rosenberg, world-renowned artist-teacher for Juilliard’s Artist Diploma program.
Annika has distinguished herself as a leader serving as concertmaster of numerous orchestras and ensembles, including The Juilliard School Pre-College Symphony in New York, the Bay Youth Orchestras of Virginia Vienna Festival Orchestra in Austria, and the InterHarmony International Music Festival Orchestra in Germany. She is currently serving her fourth year as concertmaster of Bay Youth Orchestras of Virginia Symphony Orchestra, having previously served as concertmaster of the Concert Orchestra. As concertmaster, Annika has received coaching from award-winning world-renowned Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Buffalo Philharmonic conductor JoAnn Falletta as well as members of the Virginia Symphony and has had the opportunity to perform side-by-side in concert with VSO concertmaster Vahn Armstrong. Most recently, Annika was honored to perform “The Theme from Schindler’s List” by American composer John Williams for the 2011 VSO-BYOV Side-by-Side concert. In 2010, Annika was awarded the Bay Youth Symphony Orchestra Outstanding Musician Award, an honor traditionally reserved for seniors. Annika has also had chamber music coaching with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She is a founding member of the World Youth Alliance Chamber Orchestra, a conductorless ensemble comprised of New York’s top music school students, and for which she plays both violin and viola, and is a frequent soloist.
An avid arts advocate, Annika has written numerous letters in support of the arts and joined forces with the Cultural Alliance of Hampton Roads in writing to elected officials in support of increased funding for the arts. She often performs on behalf of arts organizations, and has represented BYOV at the Annual Meeting of the Business Consortium for Arts Support. She was selected as a Virginian-Pilot Ledger-Star teen correspondent and has written articles on the arts for the award-winning “757” section of the “Daily Break.” A Girl Scout for 11 years, Annika earned the Junior Bronze Award and Cadette Silver Award performing, teaching, and sharing her love of music with the community. She is presently working toward earning Girl Scout’s highest honor, the Senior Girl Scout Gold Award. She has been a student member of the American String Teachers Association since 2006.
A Davidson Young Scholar committed to making a difference, Annika finds great joy in supporting other young writers and musicians. She creates beautiful images and thoughtful inspiration on paper as well as in her music. She is a prize-winning published poet, artist, and author. In 1999, her artwork was selected for the January issue of Your Big Backyard magazine; in 2000, her ekphrastic poem “Rescue by Twilight” was published in the Chrysler Museum of Art Poetry and Art Gallery Guide; and in 2004, her journal about her adventures with the wild ponies of Chincoteague was the cover story for the July issue of National Wildlife Federation Ranger Rick magazine. In 2003, with poetry awards combined, Annika and her two older sisters, Amber and Alyssa, endowed a Virginia Poetry Society annual poetry prize in honor of their Norfolk Academy poetry mentor Robert S. Sergeant. In 2008, with her Young Performing Artists Grand Prize Award, Annika endowed an annual prize for future Grand Prize, Instrumental, Piano, and Vocal Division winners. This year will mark her fourth presentation of awards. After winning an Essay Contest sponsored by Hair Cuttery, she was excited to present her $500 Prize to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She has donated three ponytails of her own hair, totaling 33 inches, to Locks of Love. In 2008, Annika worked on a special project for Air Compassion for Veterans, interviewing and writing memoirs of WWII and Korean War veterans which were published in a book entitled A Sacred Glance. She was recognized for her commitment to helping others in the October 11, 2004 issue of Inside Business - The Hampton Roads Business Journal and as a young person “who can inspire the rest of us.”
Annika enjoys performing for charities and organizations throughout Hampton Roads. In 2009, at age 14, she made a solo recording of Vivaldi’s Winter from the Four Seasons for a benefit CD for Traveling Notes. She is often invited to perform for official events for the City of Virginia Beach and recently performed in honor of Mayor John Montgomery and Mayoress Kathleen Montgomery from North Down Borough, Bangor, sister city from Northern Ireland, at an official document signing ceremony held in City Hall Council Chambers. She also performed at a luncheon in the City Hall Volunteer Recognition Garden in honor of Mayor Shigemitsu Tsumura and a twenty-one member delegation from sister city Miyazaki, Japan, welcoming all to the 2009 International Volunteerism Conference. Annika has served on the Mayor’s Youth Council, a group of students who meet regularly with the Mayor and other city leaders to share ideas and discuss the needs and opportunities for the youth of the community. In the summer of 2009, she represented the City of Virginia Beach and the State of Virginia as a Leadership Ambassador for the People to People Young Women’s Leadership Summit at Columbia University in New York City.
A heartwarming triumph, in 2005, at age 10, Annika gave a passionate speech and violin performance before Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf and the Virginia Beach City Council which won support for building a new performing arts center in Town Center in Virginia Beach. She gave the first public donation from her music and poetry prizes and continued to raise funds, write advocacy letters, and garner support for the project, including performing at the naming rights major fundraiser at Town Center City Club in Virginia Beach. She was commended by Mayor Oberndorf and invited as special guest to participate in the May 12, 2005 Groundbreaking Ceremony of the new Sandler Center for the Performing Arts. She was also invited to perform at the Dedication Ceremony on November 1, 2007, and a portrait of her performing is on permanent display at the Sandler Center. On November 3, 2007, a dream realized, Annika was recognized on stage and presented a Key to the City of Virginia Beach by Mayor Oberndorf before the opening night Gala Concert featuring the inaugural performance by virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman. Her photo appeared on the cover of the 2007 Fall Issue of Beach – The Magazine of Virginia Beach, and her story was profiled in the article entitled “Hitting the Right Notes – Raising the Curtain.”
Annika loves to read, travel, sketch, play guitar, compose, share time with her sisters, hang out with friends, and play with her Siberian Husky, Zorro, and two cats, Misty and Wink. An animal lover, she has “adopted” an ocelot, a polar bear, and four wild horses, gifted to sanctuaries, and played violin dressed as a Husky for the animals at the SPCA. Personal motto: “If you have enough courage to dream great dreams, you have courage enough to make your dreams come true.” Annika performs on her treasured Italian violin which was received as a gift for “always playing with such joy” and is named Laetitia Cordis, which means “Joyous Heart.” For more about Annika, please visit:
She is playing at Carnegie Hall tomorrow again too!
Hoped you enjoyed reading about Annika!
Blessings,
Rachel
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