| Brunilda Myftaraj was born in Saranda, Albania, began her violin studies at the age of 6 at the Jordan Misja School of Music in Tirana, and attended college at the Institute of Fine Arts. She started performing and touring when she was nine years old. Brunilda won numerous prizes during her studies in Albania including the National Competition for Young Players at age of ten, where she was awarded third prize. She was also member of the Young Violinist Ensemble directed by Zhani Ciko, and toured throughout Greece, Italy, France and Austria. Later, during high school, the violinist and conductor Didi Tartari offered her the position of soloist and concertmaster in her chamber orchestra, with which she made many recordings and debuted as a soloist in Albania and Greece. Brunilda was the soloist when this chamber orchestra won another national competition for chamber groups performing "Winter" from Vivaldi’s "The Four Seasons". At age of sixteen she participated in the prestigious "Premio Rodolfo Lipizer" International Violin Competition in Gorizia, Italy, were she was a semifinalist. In 1993 Brunilda won the audition to participate in the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra of France and toured Morocco and Monte Carlo. In the same year she became the first violinist of "Clasica" string Quartet, which met with success in a short amount of time, winning the award for best musical ensemble at the Balkan Festival in Delphi, Greece. The well known conductor, Franco Petracchi awarded the quartet highest honors at the at the Academy of Fine Arts, as well as a scholarship to the Musical Academy of Chigiana in Siena, Italy. There the quartet studied with the violist of the famous "Quartetto Italiano", Piero Farulli, during the summer of 1994. In 1995 the "Clasica" was awarded a tour to U.S by the Center International for the Performing Arts in Paris, France. They made their debuts in Napa Valley, San Francisco, and New York. Brunilda graduated collage in June 1995 after studying violin for sixteen years with the nations best violin teacher Proletare Skenderi. After graduating she was invited to the Academy of Yehudi Menuin in Bloney, Switzerland, where she studied with Alberto Lissy during the summer of 1995. She returned to U.S in 1995 and stayed in Napa, California for nine months with her host family. During that time she performed as concertmaster and soloist with the Solano Community Orchestra, and performed as a guest artist for the Mostly Mozart Festival of Napa Valley. She studied for two years with the Emerson String Quartet at The Hartt School of Music. She is a winner of "The Emerson String Quartet Competition 2000" as well as a semifinalist of the "Artists Guild Competition" of 2000. In November 2001 she was the winner of the Van Rooy Competition for Musical Excellence at The Hartt School. She will be a semifinalist at the Indianapolis International Violin Competition this coming September. Bruna plays in the Myftari Trio with pianist Gary Chapman and cellist Eric Dahlin. She is a member of Hartford Symphony, the Connecticut Opera Orchestra and the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and is on the faculty of The Hartt School, Community Division. |