Vera Panitch

• Deild: 1. fiðla
• Starfsheiti: 2. KONSERTMEISTARI
• Netfang: verapanitch ( @ ) gmail ( . ) com

Veronia Panitch – known as Vera, was born in 1993 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She comes from a Russian/Ukranian background and started studying the violin with the Russian violinist Arkadi Zelianodjevo at the age of 5. In 2005 she moved to Seattle where she continued her studies with Yuriy Mikhlin.

At the age of 15 Vera was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Music. At the Academy she studied solo playing with Alexandre Zapolski and chamber music with Tim Frederiksen where received her Bachelor's, Master's and Soloist degree with the highest grades.

During her studies Vera participated in several masterclasses with world renown musicians like Boris Kushnir, Gerhard Schultz, Natalia Prischepenko, Ole Bøhn, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider amongst others. Since 2017 she has been taken lessons from the concertmaster of Berliner Philharmonics Noah Bendix-Balgley. She lived half a year in New York where she received private lessons with Mela Tenenbaum, Kikuei Ikeda and Albert Markov.

At the age of 22 Vera won a position as co-principal in Iceland Symphony Orchestra and shortly after she won the position as 2nd Concertmaster likewise in ISO, where she's currently working. Vera began her orchestral carrier at the age of 16, where she started playing with Copenhagen Phil, followed by The Danish Chamber Orchestra and Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Vera has had the honor of receiving several big scholarships and grants, amongst which the Sonning Talent Prize in 2018 and Van Hauen's grant in 2015 at a ceremony in Tivoli's Concert Hall, where she performed solo with orchestra. Vera often performs as a soloist – she has played solo with The Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra and several others. Besides that, she is also an active chamber musician. She is a member of Duo Edda - a duo consisting of violin and cello. She also has a duo ensemble with her husband - the violinist Joaquín Páll Palomares and they are both members of Kordo String Quartet. Vera often takes part of different chamber music groups at festivals around Europe.

In 2014 Vera premiered a violin concerto especially written to her by Benjamin de Murashkin which she performed with the Royal Danish Academy of Music Orchestra led by the conductor Jean Thorel as part of Pulsar Festival.

Vera has won competitions since early age amongst others the International Competition of Young Performers in Czech Republic, Talent Competition in Seattle, received Gold Medal in Berlingske Music Competition, 1st prize in Jacob Gade Violin Competition where she also received a special prize for the best performance of a Danish piece and recently was a prize winner with her Duo Edda in the prestigious P2 Chamber Music Competition 2020 in Copenhagen.

As a teacher Vera finished her Masters of Music with emphasis on pedagogic and has been teaching students of all ages since 2011. She is currently teaching a couple of orchestras at Tónlistaskóli Kópavogs and chamber music groups in Menntaskóli Í Tónlist. Vera has given several masterclasses to students of the conservatory and music school in solo playing, chamber music and led a course in orchestra excerpts at the Iceland Academy of Arts.

Besides classical music Vera enjoys playing cross-over projects. In the past she has co-worked with different DJs, country, pop, rock and jazz musicians. She performs with different bands both as a soloist and as part of the group amongst those she performed with Björk. She has done numerous recordings with renown artists of all genres.

Currently Vera is playing on a violin made by Italian luthier Roberto Regazzi.