Join us for an evening of classical music with musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute led by violinist Amarins Wierdsma!  This is Amarins Wierdsma’s and her Ravinia Steans Institute colleague’s second time to perform at Barrington’s White House to a sold out crowd!  We welcome them back to perform again in our third floor ballroom! 

Born in Utrecht in 1991 to a musical family, Amarins studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and with Vera Beths at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.   In 2013 she moved to London to study with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama completing her Masters and Artist Diploma distinction and is currently completing a Fellowship.

 During her studies Amarins has won numerous awards including the RPS Emily Anderson Prize, 3rd Prize at the 2013 Dutch National Violin Competition Oskar Back, the Young Music Talent of the Year Prize in the Netherlands (2007), 1st Prize at the Davina van Wely (2005), Iordens Viooldagen (2004) and Princess Christina Competitions. She was a finalist of YCAT 2017 at Wigmore hall. She has participated in Open Chamber Music and masterclasses at IMS Prussia Cove, the International Holland Music Sessions, Kronberg Academy  and East Neuk Festival retreat.   In 2017 Amarins was selected to perform at Wigmore hall during the finals of the Young Classical Artists Trust.

 During 2017 Amarins has given a series of recitals at the Slovak Philharmonic Hall Bratislava, the Concertgebouw, and throughout the Netherlands as part of The International Holland Music Sessions Masters on Tour series.   As a soloist she has performed Prokofiev’s Concerto No.2 at the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, Vaughan Williams’s Lark Ascending at Cadogan Hall with the Mozart Symphony Orchestra, Brahms’s Concerto with the Westbourne Symphony Orchestra and Bach’s Double Concerto with the Fancy Fiddlers in Utrecht.  Further afield she has given concerts in the USA and Indonesia.

 A committed chamber musician, Amarins is first violinist in the Barbican Quartet.   Formed in 2014 at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Quartet has appeared at Wigmore Hall (Maisie Lewis Award), Barbican, Milton Court, Casa de Musica (Porto), the Harmos Festival (Portugal) and Ashmolean Museum Oxford.  Over the last year they have taken part in ProQuartet’s training programme in Paris, and undertaken a residency in Snape Maltings.   In the autumn the Quartet continue their studies at the Reina Sofia School in Madrid studying with Günther Pichler.

Amarins has taken part in masterclasses with Isabella van Keulen, Gerhard Schulz, Nikolaj Znaider, Viviane Hagner, Ference Rados, Anras Keller, Pierre Amoyal, Ivry Gitlis and Anner Bijlsma, among others.  She plays on a Landolfi violin (1755) on loan  from the National Music Instrument Foundation in Amsterdam.

Amarins is the daughter of clarinetist Nancy Braithwaite of Amsterdam and the granddaughter of Bill and Dyllis Braithwaite of Barrington.