“Merel Vercammen plays the violin enchantingly,” according to Biëlla Luttmer in *De Volkskrant*, and she is “the detective among violinists,” according to Louis Gauthier in *De Telegraaf*. In 2014, Merel graduated cum laude from the Royal College of Music in London.
I am Merel Vercammen, a violinist. I am always exploring how I can enhance the poetic expressiveness of my playing, and in doing so, I constantly strive to discover new timbres on my violin. Thanks to the Musical Instrument Fund, I can now continue this quest on a beautiful Italian violin by Postacchini!
Biography
Violinist Merel Vercammen (Nijmegen, 1988) graduated cum laude from the Royal College of Music in London. She was a prize winner at the London Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition, the National Competition of the Young Music Talent Netherlands Foundation, and the Princess Christina Competition. Merel has performed all over the world and played in concert halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and Wigmore Hall in London.
Merel began taking violin lessons at the age of five and, starting at age fifteen, studied at the Utrecht Conservatory with Eeva Koskinen. At the Royal College of Music, she earned both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Performance degrees under Jan Repko. She then took lessons with Ilya Grubert at the Fondazione Musicale Santa Cecilia in Portogruaro, Italy. She also took masterclasses with Josef Rissin, Lewis Kaplan, Daniel Hope, Alina Ibragimova, and Zakhar Bron.
As a soloist, Merel has performed, among other works, the violin concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, and Otto Ketting, with the composer himself conducting. In 2017, she premiered a violin concerto by Mathilde Wantenaar that was commissioned specifically for her. She has also developed an interactive performance about music and the brain (The New Mozart Effect) and is active in the field of improvisation. In March 2019, her debut album *Symbiosis* was released, receiving rave reviews in the international press. On this album, Merel performs works by César Franck, Poldowski, and Mathilde Wantenaar alongside pianist Dina Ivanova. Her second album, featuring a collection of duo improvisations, will be released in September 2019.
