Vilhelmas Cepinskis - biography
Vilhelmas Cepinskis studied with the renowned Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard Music School, from which he graduated in 1997.
He was born in March 1977 into a musical family in Lithuania. His mother was an opera singer and his father a violinist and conductor. He began his violin studies at the age of four with his father and at seven he made his solo debut at the Kaunas Philharmonic.
In 1987, at the age of ten, Cepinskis first performed with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra as a soloist, playing the Wieniawsky Second Violin Concerto. Since then, he has won a myriad of international competitions, and has been performing to rave reviews in solo recitals and as a soloist with numerous principal orchestras in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Norway, Germany, Hungary, USA, and others
Cepinskis was guest artist at the United Nations on September 17, 1991 the historic day when the Lithuanian flag was raised in New York.
That same year, he, together with the Queen of Jordan and the Queen of Greece, received the Maria Pia Fanfani (together for Peace Foundation) Medal from H.R.H. the Queen of Spain. In 1992 he was invited to give a special performance honouring the Royal visit of the King and Queen of Sweden to Lithuania. In 1998 Vilhelmas performed for the King and Queen of Norway.
In December 1994 he was honoured to be given the opportunity to perform with the internationally-renowned "Moscow Virtuosi" Chamber Orchestra, with Vladimir Spivakov conducting.
It has also become a tradition for Cepinskis to open and close the concert season of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, where events are always nationally televised. In fact, he has been performing for Lithuanian National Television and Radio since the age of eleven. In April 1996 Cepinskis was invited to give a solo recital at the International Ankara Music Festival in Turkey. The Spring of 1997 was also highly successful for Cepinskis. In May 1997, he performed Mozart's Symphony Concertante with violinist Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists Ensemble in International Vilnius Festival. In June he made his symphonic debut at the Carnegie Hall. His first CD was also released, featuring performances of the Sibelius Concerto, Paganini`s Concerto Nr. 2 and Sarasate`s "Carmen" Fantasy, together with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Juozas Domarkas.
In 1998 his second CD was released, featuring a performance of Shostakovich Violin Concerto Nr. 1.
Over te past year he has been performing in Liubljana, Germany, Amsterdam (at the Concertgebow), France, Turkey, the Dominican Republic and the USA.