Ke Mai
Instrument: violin
Biography:
Ke Mai (a.k.a. MaiKe) , Violinist of Cezanne Quartet which is the Peak Fellowship Ensemble in Residence at SMU Meadows School of the Art. MaiKe is originally from China and studied the art of violin playing with former Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony, Emanuel Borok. Recently he received a Performance Diploma from SMU, Meadows School of Art in 2014.
MaiKe was born and grew up in Nanning, a beautiful small city in china, where he started learning violin playing at age 4 . At age 10, he won the 3rd prize of 2nd National Children Violin Competition of China. In 2001 , MaiKe went to Kiev, Ukraine to study with Professor Liudemila Ovcherenko in the National Music Academy of Ukraineand and spend next decade there. In 2007, he won the 1st prize of The international competition of young performers”21th Century Art”. In 2009, Kiev , MaiKe performed Sibelius violin concerto with The State Estradno Symphony Orchestra under Mykola Lysenko’s conducting in the International Richter festival. After acquired Masters and Bachelor of Music Performance from the National Music Academy of Ukraine in 2006, he won the position of first violin of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine. With this top Eastern European orchestra , he tour and performed around the world, included Koln Philharmonic hall, Zurich Tonhalle concert hall, Tokyo Suntory concert hall.
In 2011, after a global online audition , MaiKe was selected as Principal Second Violinist for the 2011 YouTube Symphony Orchestra in Sydney, Australia, which was a week-long collaboration of 101 musicians from 33 countries. The grand finale included animated visuals on the interior and exterior projections by Obscura Digital on the iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House and streamed live on YouTube around the world. The project was led by world-renowned, Grammy award-winning conductor and Artistic Advisor, Michael Tilson Thomas, among other musical luminaries from leading orchestras around the world. The concert was streamed to 33 million worldwide and has been viewed over 2.5 million times online.
Maike’s violin is provided by Virtu Foundation, made by Douglas Cox in 2000.
