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Ion-Alexandru Malaimare
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WIU Violinist Wins National Competition

March 28, 2014

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MACOMB, IL - Ion-Alexandru Malaimare, a master of music violin performance student of Associate Professor Julieta Mihai at Western Illinois University, was named winner of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artist String Competition on March 24.

Malaimare became a national finalist in January after winning the state and division levels of the competition, and he competed in the final round at the MTNA National Conference in Chicago this week. He was one of seven string finalists from around the nation, each performing a 40-minute solo program for a panel of three nationally-renowned judges.

During the competition, Malaimare performed works by Bach, Beethoven, Sibelius, Wieniawski and Enescu. As a national winner, he received a cash prize and performed in a concert along with the winners of the piano, woodwind, brass, voice and chamber music competitions.

Faculty Assistant Liang-Yu Wang, from the WIU School of Music, was Malaimare's accompanist for the competition.

At WIU, Malaimare has also studied violin with Florin Croitoru and WIU Associate Professor Istvan Szabo. He is currently the concertmaster for the WIU Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of WIU Associate Professor Richard Hughey.

The MTNA is a nonprofit organization comprised of 22,000 independent and collegiate music teachers committed to advancing the value of music study and music making to society and to supporting the professionalism of music teachers. Founded in 1876, the MTNA is the oldest professional music association in the United States.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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