Violinist Charlene Kluegel '10 was the winner of the third annual Cornell Concerto Competition, held Jan. 27 in Barnes Hall. She performed her competition piece, the first movement of Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D Minor, with the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, March 4 in Bailey Hall.

The 2007 concerto competition involved 16 participants in preliminary rounds, followed by evening performances by five finalists. The other finalists were Emily Looney '07, saxophone; Jung Bin Lee '09, piano; and violinists Jian Liu '09 and Andrew Yeo, M.A. '05. A panel of five judges selected the finalists and the winner.

Kluegel majors in music and biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is concertmaster of the Cornell Chamber Orchestra and studies with Stephen Miahky, a lecturer in the Department of Music. She grew up in Germany, China and Switzerland, and began studying violin at age 6, receiving extensive training from the University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany; the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Kluegel won first prize with distinction at the Swiss National Youth Music Competition in 2004 and first prize at the Jugend Musiziert Youth Music Competition in Germany in 2001.

During her senior year of high school in Zurich, she was admitted to the University of the Arts in Bern; was the youngest student selected to attend a special master class on 19th-century performance practice with Clive Brown of the University of Leeds, England; and received additional training under Igor Ozim of the Mozarteum, Austria. She has performed in China, Germany and San Francisco and with the Meilener Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland.

Listen to Kluegel performing March 4 with the Cornell Symphony Orchestra (5 min., 4.5MB).