Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
YMF 2005
THE RSAMD STRING TRIO was formed in October 2004, and is currently tutored by Scott Dickinson. In November 2004, they took part in a masterclass given by Robert Irvine, and in December, a masterclass by the Lindsay Quartet.
ESZTER KRULIK (violin) was born in Budapest in 1979, and started playing the violin at the age of 7. She was educated at various specialist music schools in Budapest before entering the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music where she studied until 2004. Whilst a student there, she spent a year at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, and in 2003, was awarded a Scholarship of the Hungarian Republic. In 2004, she received a RSAMD Endowment Trust International Scholarship to enable her to study at the Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow. Whilst a student in Hungary, she attended violin masterclasses with Denes Zsigmondy and Gyula Stuller, and a chamber music masterclass with Gabor Csalog. She has considerable orchestral experience, having played with the Budafok Dohnanyi Erno and Danube symphony orchestras, the Accelerando String Orchestra and the Budapest Hillside Chamber Orchestra. She has also played early music with the Ars Longa Chamber Orchestra (with whom she recorded Bach's 'Christmas Oratorio' and Haydn's 'Nelson' Mass) and world music with the Makam Ensemble (with whom she has also recorded).
She has a particular interest in contemporary and chamber music and has participated, with composers, in the Zebegeny Modern Music Workshop and the Contemporary Music Workshop Balatonboglar, has played in World Premier Days of New Hungarian Contemporary Pieces (2002-2004), 'Music without borders in the heart of Europe' (2000-2002) in Vienna and Prague, the Budapest Spring Festival (2002) and the Rondino Festival of Modern Music, Balassagyarmat (2204).
VERONIKA TOTH (viola) was born in Budapest in 1985 and started playing the violin when she was 5. She studied the violin for 10 years before changing to the viola in 2001 (although she still plays the violin in Hungarian folk music groups). In 1999 she began to study the viola under Istvan Polonyi at St Stephan's Secondary School of Music in Budapest and, in March 2004, won the First National Hungarian Viola Competition for Secondary Schools. She is now studying at the RSAMD under Scott Dickinson after receiving a Ferguson Trust Award and an Allan and Shearer Scholarship.
Future plans include spending a year studying in Japan, and becoming a pupil of Kim Kashkashian.
CHRISTOFF FOURIE (cello) was born in 1982 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He began his music tuition at the age of 4 under the guidance of his parents, subsequently studying the cello with some of South Africa's top teachers including Marian Lewin, Professor Gerard van der Geest and Magdalena Roux; he also studied chamber music with Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhaes.
Christoff made his concerto debut at the age of 13 with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra which led to engagements with some of the country's best orchestras, and also the English Chamber Orchestra and the French National Chamber Orchestra.
Upon completion of his studies at the Pro Arte School of Arts, he went on to study at the University of Stellenbosch, winning several prizes including the Hans Endler and Elphick awards. During this period, he also completed a two-year cadetship with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. As a member of the Stellenbosch Piano Trio, he toured internationally and also accepted invitations to appear at festivals in Portugal and Austria.
Christoff is currently completing his undergraduate studies at the RSAMD, where an Associated Board scholarship enables him to study cello with Rudi de Groote, and baroque cello with Alison McGillivray.
Christoff plays on a wonderful nineteenth-century French cello, kindly given to him by the Veloza family.