2008-2009 Competition Winner – Nicole DiBlasi, violin

Nicole DiBlasi, age 16, began her violin studies at age 5. As a Classics for Kids winner in 2005, she was soloist with the Brockton Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared as soloist with the Salem Philharmonic, the Reading Symphony, and the Hillyer Festival Orchestra and was invited to rejoin them on the Hatch Shell as part of the WCRB Classical Concert Series. Nicole was prizewinner in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and New England Conservatory Youth Concerto Competitions, and her chamber group, the Bouty String Quartet, received third prize in the 2008 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition. As a high school honors student and violin student of Professor Yuri Mazurkevich at Boston University, she is also a member of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. She has previously studied with Jin-Kyung Joen and Marylou Speaker Churchill. Nicole also was recently selected as a candidate for Miss Massachusetts Teen USA.