Biography

ELENA URIOSTE, recently selected as a BBC New Generation Artist and featured on the cover of Symphony magazine, has been hailed by critics and audiences alike for her lush tone, the nuanced lyricism of her playing, and her commanding stage presence. Since first appearing with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age thirteen, she has made acclaimed debuts with major orchestras throughout the United States, including the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Chicago, National, Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Richmond, and San Antonio Symphony Orchestras. Abroad, Elena has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Würzburg Philharmonic, Hungary’s Orchestra Dohnányi Budafok and MAV Orchestra, and La Orquesta Sinfonica de la Universidad de Guanajuato. She has performed recitals in such distinguished venues as Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Sage Gateshead in Newcastle, and the Mondavi Center at the University of California-Davis. Recent engagements have included return performances with the Chicago Symphony and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, the BBC Philharmonic, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; and debuts with the Tucson, Asheville, and Edmonton Symphony Orchestras, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the New York Youth Symphony, with whom she toured Argentina in the summer of 2015.

Elena’s 2015/16 season highlights include debuts with the San Francisco, Alabama, Kitchener-Waterloo, South Florida, and Des Moines Symphony Orchestras; returns to the Knoxville, Tucson, and Amarillo Symphony Orchestras and the Heartland Festival Orchestra; and residencies at the Roman River Festival in England, the Verbier Festival at Schloss Elmau in Germany, and Chamber Music Sedona WinterFest in Arizona.

As first-place laureate in both the Junior and Senior divisions of the Sphinx Competition, Elena debuted at Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium in 2004 and has returned annually as soloist. She has collaborated with acclaimed conductors Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Robert Spano, and Keith Lockhart; pianists Mitsuko Uchida, Dénes Várjon, Christopher O’Riley, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn; cellists Peter Wiley, Colin Carr, and Carter Brey; violists Kim Kashkashian and Michael Tree; and violinists Joseph Silverstein, Shlomo Mintz, and Cho-Liang Lin. An avid chamber musician as well as soloist, Elena frequently performs in recital with pianist Michael Brown and cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and has been a featured artist at the Marlboro, Ravinia and Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, La Jolla, and Sarasota Music Festivals, as well as Switzerland’s Sion Valais International Music Festival.

Elena’s awards include the inaugural Sphinx Medal of Excellence, a London Music Masters Award, a Salon de Virtuosi career grant, and first prize in the Sion International Violin Competition, which also awarded her its audience prize and the prize for best performance of the competition’s newly commissioned work.

Her media credits include the popular radio programs From the Top andPerformance Today, appearances on Telemundo and NBC’s Today Show, and a McGraw Young Artists Showcase performance for a live studio audience at WQXR’s Greene Space in New York City. She was featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary Breaking the Sound Barrier, and in numerous magazines including Symphony, The Strad, Strings, and Latina, which included her in its 15th anniversary issue as one of its “Future Fifteen.” Her first CD was released on the White Pine label, and her second recording — with pianist Michael Brown — will be released in 2015.

Elena made her acting debut in the independent feature film But Not For Me, written and directed by Ryan J. Carmichael, as the lead female role of Hope. The film premiered at the 2015 Brooklyn Film Festival and won the award for Best Original Score, to which Elena contributed.

Elena is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank, and Ida Kavafian. She completed graduate studies with Joel Smirnoff at The Juilliard School. Other notable teachers include David Cerone, Choong-Jin Chang, Soovin Kim, and the late Rafael Druian.

The outstanding instruments now being used by Elena are an Alessandro Gagliano violin, Naples c. 1706, and a Nicolas Kittel bow, both on generous extended loan from the private collection of Dr. Charles E. King through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.