Artist of the Month #5: Ana Chumachenco

Ana Chumachenco was born in Italy, of Russian origin with German and Argentinian nationality. Her father was follower of Leopold Auer, and Ana began studying violin at age four under her father’s guidance. Later, she studied with Ljerko Spiller in Buenos Aires. She spent a lot of time in South America up until the age of 17, when she moved back to Europe to continue studying the violin.

When she was 18, she won the gold medal at the Carl Flesch competition in London. A few years later, she won the silver medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. During those years, she learned from Yehudi Menuhin, Joseph Szigeti, and Sandor Vegh.

She often appears as a soloist with orchestras or in recitals, but she also spends a lot of her time playing chamber music. She has played in the Munich String Trio (with violist Oscar Lysy and cellist Walter Notas) for over 20 years. She was the violin professor at the Munich University of Music for a long time, and trained many young violinists who continued on to very successful careers. Now she is a professor at Kronberg Academy Masters. She is often asked to be a juror in major violin competitions (i.e. the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium and the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki).