Callum Smart, violin

Callum Smart came to wide public attention when at the age of thirteen he won the string section of the 2010 BBC Young Musicians Competition and was subsequently selected as one of three concerto finalists.  In the finals he performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Vasily Petrenko at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff broadcast on BBC 2 and Radio 3.

Callum 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 was a student of Maciej Rakowski and for the last three years has continued his studies with him at Chetham’s School of Music. His concerto work has included appearances as soloist with the Chetham’s String Orchestra, National Children’s Orchestra, the Charnwood, Liverpool Mozart, Wimbledon 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 he was a prize-winner in the 2010 Menuhin Competition in Oslo, where he also performed in the Conservatory of Music with an orchestra from the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Barratt-Due Music Institute conducted by Per Kristian Skalstad.

2010 also saw Callum give a series of recitals with Gordon Back including a Radio 3 broadcast from Carreglwyd, a concert at the Cheltenham Festival, and an appearance as a concerto soloist at Cadogan Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London with the National Children’s Orchestra.  In December Callum returned to Cardiff to perform the Glazunov Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Grant Llewellyn, broadcast live by BBC Radio 3. He also performed with the orchestra as a soloist in their series of Christmas concerts around Wales.  Future recitals include the Lamberhurst Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern in Germany as well as concerts in Spain and Gstaad, Switzerland.

Callum plays on a c.1730-35 violin by Carlo Bergonzi.