Drostan Hall

Background

About Drostan Hall

Drostan Hall, Conductor, Music Director and Founder of Camerata Chicago, is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, where he studied violin with Yossi Zivoni and a graduate of Northern Illinois University where he studied with members of the Vermeer String Quartet including Shmuel Ashkenasi, Piere Menard and Mathias Tacke. In June of 2013, the tenth anniversary of Camerata Chicago, Drostan undertook a major European tour conducting Camerata Chicago and cellist Wendy Warner as soloist, performing six concerts in ten days. The tour received rave reviews from European newspapers and the Litomyšl Festival.In August 2013, Cedille Records released a recording of Haydn and Myslivecek Concertos with Wendy Warner and Camerata Chicago conducted by Drostan Hall, garnering fabulous reviews. The CD was nominated for an International Classical Music Award. Classic FM (UK) plays the CD regularly and it has been featured on 98.7 WFMT Chicago as well as WQXR New York, among many others. as Music Director of Camerata Chicago, he has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Wendy Warner, Peter Van De Graaf and Michelle Arezaga, Suzanne Hou and Caroline Goulding. Drostan has had a particularly close relationship with the internationally acclaimed Vermeer String Quartet, collaborating with the quartet’s leader Shmuel Ashkenasi with whom he performed and recorded the 5th violin concerto of Mozart. Mr. Ashkenasi subsequently became Artistic Advisor to Camerata Chicago in 2006. Drostan began violin lessons at the age of 4 and at the age of 12 he received a Martin Musical Scholarship to continue his studies with Frederick Grinke. A year later he was selected to compete in the first Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. The Aldeburgh Foundation invited Drostan to participate in their internationally acclaimed master classes at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies where he studied with Ruggiero Ricci and Norbert Brianin. Drostan, at the age of 14, was the youngest ever violinist to participate in these master classes. In 1995 Drostan toured Germany with the Internationale Junge Orchesterakadamie performing the Bruch Violin Concerto. Drostan collaborated with pianist Lyudmila Lakisova giving many acclaimed recitals in Chicago and received invitations to give live radio broadcasts for Chicago’s WFMT radio station and in 2003 toured the U.K. In 2001 he produced Ferdinand & Friends an educational compact disc for children on the DMD Classics label which became a best seller in various educational catalogues.