Newspaper publication【Oita Godo Shimbun Newspaper May 31】
Violinist William Chiquito Participates Beppu Argerich Music Festival
It is important to continue to have a dream.
William Chiquito is a young violinist whose elaborate techniques and performances evoking warmth are highly rated. I asked him about his impression on Beppu City and his thoughts on performance activities. (Interviewed by Takahashi Keiko)
- Impression about Mischa Maisky and Ohmiya Rintaro and other Japanese musicians
Maisky is one of my heroes. I have a great number of CDs and records of Maisky, so it was a great honor for me to be able to perform with him. Japanese artists were also very professional. Their performance was so careful and expressive. I enjoyed performing with them.
- Impression about Beppu
Tokyo is a really large city and it is difficult to closely meet people with each other, but coming to Beppu, I was very much impressed. People are so close with each other and I easily had opportunities to talk to them.
- Your profile reads that had not it been for music, you could have fallen prey to a tragic fate just like many of your childhood friends.
I was grown in a very dangerous town called Medellín in Columbia. I had an opportunity to experience music by chance as there was an organization to promote classical music education. It was a miracle and relief by God for me.
- What motivates your performance?
My feeling that I love music and violin more than anything else. Violin is mysterious and a silver of light for me. I need it with a feeling of something religious. I cannot think of living without violin
- Please give a message to children who want to be a musician.
When I was a child, I was poor and always complaint how I could buy a better violin. Hearing this, my teacher told me to practice more and keep my dream alive without saying such a thing, and then something would happen. As my teacher told, really various things have come true. That’s why I still perform, challenge myself to new things, and continue to have a dream. What is important is not to stop dreaming. This is what I want to say to children.
May 22, 2023 Mischa Maisky & Special Quartet
Profile: William Chiquito
William Chiquito was born in a slum of Medellín in Colombia. At the age of 11, he joined a music education project promoted by the government and support organizations and started the violin. He soon stood out as one of the most promising Colombian talents of his generation.
In 2006 William won a scholarship given by the Colombian Master Painter Fernando Botero and moved to Italy.
He is currently a violinist of the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, with which Argerich Arts Foundation has concluded an exchange agreement. William Chiquito is very active performing with prominent conductors.
Providing a Private Lesson to Junior High Student Hamada
Hamada says, “It was a precious experience.”
Violinist William Chiquito, who participated in the 23rd MUSIC FESTIBVAL Argerich’s Meeting Point in Beppu, gave a private lesson to Hamada Toshitaka, first year junior high school student, who won the Argerich Arts Foundation Prize at the 74th Student Music Concours of Japan Kitakyushu District competition (2020) at Argerich’s Haus on May 23.
The lesson piece was Wieniawski Variations on an Original Thema op. 15. Mr. Chiquito gave an enthusiastic lesson with a model performance and hamming the melody.
He encouraged Hamada, “Practice hard and become a great violinist.”
Hamada said, “We were able to understand each other through the violin. It was a really precious experience for me.”
(Written by Oe Kenichi)
