Winner 2023

Ilva Eigus was born in Switzerland in 2007. She received her first violin lesson at the age of three from Liana Tretiakova and continued to study with her at the Zakhar Bron School of Music in Zurich until 2023. Ilva is currently a student in PreCollege at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège in Belgium with Professor Marc Bouchkov.

Ilva’s exceptional talent was recognized early on and she has been taught by the renowned violin professor Zakhar Bron since the age of seven. She has gained further musical inspiration from Priya Mitchell, Ingolf Turban, Augustin Dumay, Latica Honda-Rosenberg, Janine Jansen, Michaela Martin, Alexandra Soumm and Maxim Vengerov.  She is a scholarship holder of the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein, where she regularly takes part in the activities of the academy.

Ilva made her orchestral debut at the age of eight with the Kabalevsky Violin Concerto. Since then, she has played as a soloist with Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Moscow Philharmonic, Novosibirsk Philharmonic, Prague Royal Philharmonic and SWD Philharmonie Konstanz, among others. Ilva was invited to perform in venues such as Tonhalle Zurich, Mozarteum Salzburg, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Bolshoi Theatre and the House of Music in Moscow, Château de Chillon in Montreux and Palazzo Vecchio in Florence and festivals such as the Trans-Siberian Art Festival, Festival de Musique de Menton, Septembre Musical in Montreux-Vevey, Enjoy Jazz Festival Mannheim, Zaubersee Festival Lucerne and Musikwoche Braunwald. She is eager to explore contemporary music, having premiered works by Daniel Schnyder, Nik Bärtsch and Samy Moussa. In 2023 she took part at the Verbier Festival Academy as a Junior Student, where she received the “Rotary Prize” and made her debut at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival.

Ilva is a multiple first prize winner of the Swiss Youth Music Competition (SJMW) in the category violin solo as well as chamber music and top prize winner of renowned international competitions: first prize at the XXI International “Nutcracker” Competition in Moscow in 2020 and 2nd prize at the Wieniawski-Lipinski Violin Competition in Lublin, Poland in 2021.

Ilva has been supported by the Fritz Gerber Foundation, the Ruth and Ernst Burkhalter Foundation, the Lyra Foundation, the Pierino Ambrosoli Foundation and the Kiwanis Club Zollikon. Ilva plays an Omobono Stradivari from 1707, on generous loan from the Stradivari Stiftung Habisreutinger-Huggler-Coray.