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Claire Wells

Born in Fremont, California in 2001, American violinist Claire Wells is the winner of 3rd prize and Best Interpretation of French Sonata at the Mirecourt International Violin Competition in 2018. She has won a number of national competitions as well, including 1st Prize in the Lynn Harrell Competition, Grand Prize at the Vernell Gregg National Competition, 2nd Prize at the Schmidbauer National Competition, Grand Prize at the Collin County Competition, 1st Prize at the Oregon Mozart Players Competition, and participated in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. Claire began playing the violin and the piano at the age of 3, and studied privately with teachers including Gary Levinson, Brian Lewis, Sandy Yamamoto, Rudens Turku, Emanuel Borok, and Li Lin. She is currently studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Lutsia Ibragimova. Claire has given both solo and chamber performances at numerous festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, Meadowmount, Music at Menlo, Holland Music Sessions, Verão Classico, International Summer Academy, Brian Lewis Young Artist Program, as well as many others, and has been an active participant of the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses. She has participated in the Lac Leman Masterclasses, Musikferien Starnberger See Masterclasses, and Musiktage Seefeld, where she won the Forderpreise. Artists with whom she has performed with include Mihaela Martin, Nobuko Imai, Conrad Muck, Daniel Austrich, and Franz Helmerson. She has had masterclasses and coachings from Ana Chumachenco, Kolja Blacher, Roman Simovic, Ulf Wallin, Christian Altenburger, Wu Han, Donald Weilerstein, Boris Kushnir, Julia Fischer, Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Simon James, Jorja Fleezanis, Ian Swensen, Sally Thomas, Almita Vamos, among many others. Claire has performed as a soloist with many recognized orchestras, including Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Plano Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Jalisco Philharmonic in Guadalajara, Mexico, Shen Zhen Symphony Orchestra, Nancy Lyric Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Julien Masmondet, Qingdao Symphony under conductor Jiannan Sima, and others. She has performed both violin and piano concerto with the Suprima Chamber Orchestra in the same concert. As a musician who loves various genres, Claire also plays Moroccan fusion music with the Moroccan band AZA, and appeared as a violinist on two of their successful albums. She plays on a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini.