Violinist Marillier Wins Bellan Competition

Congratulations to incoming Master’s student Léo Marillier, who won the Prix d’Honneur in violin at the Leopold Bellan Competition in Paris in May.  Léo will join Miriam Fried’s studio this fall.  Founded in 1926 and recently revived, the Bellan Competition is named for the famed French industrialist, journalist, politician and philanthropist. Among the notable prize winners in the past have been Olivier Messiaen, Paul Tortelier, Michel Plasson and Yvonne Loriod. Léo's prizes included 1000 Euros, a recital and DVD.

A graduate of the Paris Conservatory, Léo was first taught by Larissa Kolos before joining Alexis Galpérine’s class. He also plays the piano and the cello. In addition to the Bellan Competition prize, he  won First Prize and Special Mozart Prize at the Eighth B. Dvarionas International Competition in Vilnius at the age of 12; the Special Tchaikovsky Prize at the Sixth International Tchaikovsky Competition for young musicians in Seoul; and First Prize in the Marschner International Competition in 2010. He made his orchestral solo debuts in Germany and Lituania at fourteen. In 2012 he played the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Copenhagen Youth Symphony Orchestra. And he recently played with the Wiener Concert-Verein Orchestra conducted by Thomas Rösner for the season opening performance of Les Concerts Classiques d’Epinal.

Léo has also premiered Wolfgang Marschner’s Vampir-Variationen for Violin and Orchestra After Motives from the Opera Der Vampir by Heinrich Marschner.

He has arranged for violin and piano pieces including “Reminiscences de Don Juan” of Liszt that he has played in recitals.

Léo plays a François Varcin violin (Paris, 2012), on loan from the Mécénat Musical Société Générale.