Wendy Ghysels
violin
Took up the violin in Belgium at the age of 5 with Mr. Poskin. By the time she was 14, she became a junior of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO). A student of J.-P. Wallez at the HEM in Geneva, she received her Soloist Diploma as well as the award for best Violin Diploma at the age of 20. She then entered the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, where she studied with Erich Gruenberg, obtaining after two years a Postgraduate in Performance Diploma with "Phenomenal" distinction and a 97% grade, as well as the Special Award Diploma of RAM. She is a Laureate of numerous prices, including Dexia, Jong Tenuto, Vocation, Frieder Wald, Cordelia Moses, Leenaards and Dénéréaz. She has regularly performed with the Ensemble Contrechamps,
the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Belgique La Monnaie, the EUYO and Camerata Bellerive under the direction of conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kazuchi Ono, Trevor Pinnock, etc. She has been a soloist with numerous orchestras performing in the main Hall of the Opéra Royal La Monnaie, the Victoria Hall in Geneva and the Paderewski Hall à Montbenon amongst others; she has performed with the Orchestre Philharmonique Strauss, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. Currently, Wendy teaches at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève. She is also 1st Violin of the Byron Quartet, which gives about thirty concerts each year, and has recorded Shostakovich on her first album with the label Aparté, distributed by Harmonia Mundi.