Audition Cafe

Introduction

Ion-Alexandru Malaimare, a native of Romania, has performed in recitals and concerts in Europe and United States. An integral part of his career development as a musician was winning the scholarship offered by SoNoRoChamber Music Workshops. He participated in masterclasses with renowned artists such as Rachel Barton Pine, Almita Vamos, Ronny Rogoff, Helmuth Nicolai.

He participated in numerous competitions and was the 1st Prize winner at the Young Artist Competition of MTNA and the University of Illinois Concerto Competition. With his quartet, he won awards at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and the New York Artists International Competition, which included an invitation to perform a recital at Carnegie Hall.

He served as Concertmaster of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Principal Second violin of the Heartland Symphony Orchestra, and Evansville Philharmonic, a member of the residence quartet at the University of Evansville, and Adjunct Violin Professor at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Among other activities, he searches to expand his repertoire to include fiddle music of Romania and works from movie soundtracks. He is featured as a member of the music department for the Live Cinema workshop ‘Distant Vision’ of Francis Ford Coppola, broadcasted on July 22nd, 2016. He is interested in expanding his audience beyond the traditional concert hall. In this regard, he started a TikTok channel (@nicaviolin) and together with violist YooBin Lee, he started a YouTube Channel featuring music videos for viola & violin, called The Eight Strings. More recently, he features on the faculty roster at Marshall University. Ion-Alexandru plays on an Ultralight violin made by Canadian-American luthier Joseph Curtin.