NYSAE: CURRENT SEASON

2011-2012 SEASON

Diomedes Saraza

Violinist Diomedes Saraza returns for his third appearance with NYSAE. Born into a family of musicians, he showed his interest in the violin at the age of three, when his father became his first teacher He began formal lessons at the age of five at St. Scholastica's College of Music (Philippines) studying under the violin pedagogue Virna Valerio. After one year, he transferred to the Juilliard-trained violinist, Professor Basilio Manalo and then to Professor Arturo Molina, the only non-Russian in history to win the Annual String Competition at the Kiev Conservatory, Moscow.

Diomedes has performed as a soloist with the PREDIS Chamber Orchestra and with the Children's Orchestra as concertmaster. He became the youngest member of the Manila Symphony Orchestra II and has been featured in Maestro Filipino I and Friends of Cultural Center of The Philippines (CCP) Concerts. At the age of 8, Diomedes was a delegate to the 45th Suzuki Music Convention (1998) held in Japan. He has been featured at his premier recital at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and at the Pasig Music Festival. In 2002, he won first place at the National Music Competition for Young Artists and in 2003 he made his concert debut "The Gift" at the CCP and was recognized to be one of the best performances for 2003 in the Philippines.

In 2005, he moved to New York to pursue his studies in violin at Mannes College, Preparatory Division, where he was under the tutelage of respected violin pedagogue, Dr. Chin Kim. In 2006, he joined the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont and played the Khachaturian Violin Concerto for the opening concert. In 2007, he won the Friday-Woodmere Young Artist Competition in Hewlett, NY and was featured in WQXR 96.3's Rob Sherman's Young Artist Showcase. In 2008, he won the Mannes Concerto Competition which led him to a performance with the Mannes Philharmonic under the baton of Michael Adelson. Later that year, he became the concertmaster of the Mannes Philharmonic. In 2009, he had his homecoming concert in the Philippines entitled "Symphonic Virtuosity" with the German conductor, Christoph Poppen.

In 2009, Diomedes made his New York concert debut with the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble performing the Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1. He returned in 2010 to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. He also won a prize in the Juilliard Competition 2010 playing William Schuman’s Violin Concerto and recently performed at Paul Hall of The Juilliard School in "Sonatenabend," an all-sonata concert. Also, he recently had a performance with the Philippines Philharmonic Orchestra at the Cultural Center of the Philippines performing Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto. He is currently studying with Professor Stephen Clapp at The Juilliard School.