It’s wonderful that I, Eline Liselotte van Dijk, get to play a beautiful violin and bow thanks to the Musical Instrument Fund. Hopefully, I’ll have many special performances where I can play them.
My name is Eline Liselotte van Dijk; I’m 14 years old and I’m from Bilthoven. I’ve been playing the violin since I was four using the Suzuki method, and soon after that I began taking lessons with Coosje Wijzenbeek at the Sweelinck Academy for Young Talent at the Amsterdam Conservatory and played in the Fancy Fiddlers ensemble. Since I was ten, I’ve been taking lessons from Chris Duindam at the Academy for Musical Talent, affiliated with the Utrecht Conservatory, and I play in the Cugnon Junior Concert. In addition to the violin, I play the piano and enjoy singing.
Career
In recent years, I reached the finals of the Archipel Competition and the Concertgebouw Competition, and placed second in Holland’s Got Talent and the Dutch Violin Competition. At age twelve, I won the Grand First Prize at the Manhattan International Music Competition, the Grand First Prize at the String Competition Online, the Platinum Award for Best Classical Musicians (Season 3), and was named an Outstanding Laureate and recipient of the Special Prize at the World’s Best Musicians Competition, and was invited to perform a festive solo recital at Carnegie Hall in New York. I was also nominated for the Bunschoten Young Talent Award and performed on NPO Klassiek. I won first prizes at the Florence Competition and the Britten Competition, and at ages seven and ten, I won first prize in the national finals of the Princess Christina Competition, followed by two first prizes in the regional finals. In 2024, I placed third in the national finals, held in Amare. In April of this year, I won second prize in the national finals of the Noor Music Young Musician Competition in Estonia.
Master Classes
I took masterclasses with Marc Danel, Maria Milstein, Lisa Jacobs, Tim Kliphuis, Miguel Negri, Andrey Baranov, Kees Hulsmann, Nadia Wijzenbeek, Peter Brunt, Wouter Vossen, Sonja van Beek, David Takeno, and others. I participated in many summer violin festivals in Denver, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Italy.
Performances
At the ages of seven and eight, I had the opportunity to perform as a soloist in the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; I subsequently performed as a soloist with, among others, the Britten Youth String Orchestra and the Amersfoort Youth Orchestra in the Main Hall of TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, the Festival Xenia ensemble in Florence, the Festival Rencontres Musicales Champéry, and most recently performed a lovely solo at the Lunch Concert at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht. I’ve appeared on RTV Utrecht, “Podium Witteman” on NPO 2, the AVROTROS Music Gala, the Kinderprinsengracht Concert, the NOS Jeugdjournaal, and RTL 4’s “Holland’s Got Talent,” as well as at the National Children’s Memorial at Madurodam, and I performed on the Classic Express bus for the Princess Christina Competition.
I perform regularly in various settings with the Cugnon Junior Consort and alongside my regular pianist, Peter Sluijs. This spring, I will go on tour to Germany and Denmark as a soloist with the Kennemer Youth Orchestra, and I have been invited to perform at the Liberation Concert in Haarlem.
My dream is to become a soloist and perform internationally.
