BIOGRAPHY 

“Yonan is one of the most gifted violinists of his generation.”   Ruggiero Ricci 

“Yonan has impeccable technique, a sumptuous tone and a real depth to his playing.” The Whole Note, Toronto 

“Yonan's playing is characterized by clarity, technical mastery and passionate vitality.” –Berliner Morgenpost

Born in Berlin, David Yonan was quickly recognized as an artist of extraordinary ability after winning the Berlin Youth Competition at age ten. He gave his recital debuts in Berlin, Moscow and St. Petersburg at age eleven. 

A year later, he debuted in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall as a soloist with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and was invited the following year by conductor Gerd Albrecht to perform at the “Violinists of the 21st Century” concert at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, which was televised globally by Deutsche Welle TV. The Berliner Morgenpost wrote, “Yonan is a name to memorize for the future”.
Since then David Yonan has toured as a soloist throughout the United States, Europe and South America with major orchestras in prestigious concert halls around the globe, such as the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Frankfurt Philharmonic, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Baden-Badener Philharmonic, Santiago de Chile Symphony Orchestra, Göttinger Symphoniker, International Contemporary Ensemble, Jenaer Philharmonie, Nürnberg Symphony, Thüringer Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Symphonia, Skokie Valley Symphony,  Highland Park Strings and with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with such distinguished conductors as Gerd Albrecht, David Zinman, Daniel Boico, Francisco Rettig , Sidney Harth, Isaiah Jackson, Robert Hasty,
Dieter Kober, James Mack, Jay Fishman, Hans-Martin-Rabenstein, Ludwig deRidder, Victor Puhl, Michael Guettler, Konrad Bach, Fausto Nardi, Francesco Milliotto, Philip Simmons, Anatol Lysenka, Andrzey Grabiec among others. 
Price Waterhouse produced his Debut CD 1995 with American pianist Anne Marie McDermott, as part of the internationally highly anticipated 'wrapped Reichstag Project” in Berlin of conceptual artists Christo and Jeanne Claude, featuring works of Bach, Debussy, Tartini, Ravel and Wieniawski. 

A champion of new music, Yonan has collaborated and worked with distinguished composers of our time, such as Arvo Pärt, John Adams, Steve Reich and Augusta Read Thomas. 
Composers Ilya Levinson, Sandro Fazzolari, Kirsten Broberg, Holger Münzer have dedicated works to him.

In 2001, the celebrated violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay invited him to perform as a selected young artist at the inaugural Starling DeLay Violin Symposium at the Juilliard School New York, where he performed with Itzhak Perlman, and subsequently made his recital debut in the same year at the Aspen Music Festival with pianist Evan Solomon. Other Festival Performances have included the Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau Musikfestival, Zeist Music Days (Netherlands), Bowdoin Summer Music Festival (Maine, USA) , InterHarmony International Music Festival in Germany and San Francisco and the Montecito International Music Festival (Los Angeles, USA). 

David Yonan has performed on TV and radio for major networks and radio stations, including ABC, NBC, CBS, and the German ARD and ZDF networks. The MDR TV Network produced with Yonan in 1996 a feature titled “on the traces of J.S. Bach”. 

In 2015, his critically acclaimed CD release “Four Centuries” with American pianist Susan Merdinger, was awarded with two Global Music Awards and a Carnegie Hall Debut at the Alexander and Buono International String Competition winners concert in New York. In the same year Yonan gave the world-premiere of Ilya Levinson’s “Assyrian Lament” for violin and orchestra, written  for David Yonan with the Highland Park Strings at the North Shore Center of the Performing Arts Chicago, conducted by Robert Hasty. In June 2016 he embarked on the  project of performing and recording live the Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano by Beethoven for WMFT Radio Chicago with Susan Merdinger. Lincoln Center Stage, New York invited him to perform on an European chamber music tour in fall 2016.  

Highlights of the 2016-17 Season included the performance of the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano with pianist Ulugbek Palvanov at Piano Salon Christophori Berlin.   


David Yonan is one of a select few violinists who have performed the complete cycles of the 24 Paganini Caprices, the 6 Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas and the 6 Ysaye Sonatas in live concerts, earning him standing ovations at the Aspen Music Festival, in Berlin, Germany, and in Chicago.   

David Yonan is a winner of several international competitions, most recently 1st prize winner at the 2015 Alexander & Buono International String Competition New York at Carnegie Hall, 1st Prizes in the International Ruggiero Ricci Competition Berlin 1995, the International Kloster Schöntal Violin Competition Germany 1993, The Hanns Eisler Prize Berlin 1994, Silver Medalist at the  International "Luis Sigall" Vina del Mar Competition Chile 1995, as well as prizewinner at  the International Queen Sophie Charlotte Competition, Germany 2005, the Brahms Prize of the International Carl Flesch Academy, Baden-Baden 1995, and the Possehl-award of the Musikhochschule Lübeck in 1995. 

In 2010 David Yonan became Coordinator of Strings and visiting Artist-In-Residence at Columbia College-Chicago, preceded by  faculty positions  at North Park University Chicago, where he founded and directed also the NPU Chamber Strings and was on the faculty of the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, Chicago.
Yonan has given master classes and guest lectures  at San Francisco State University, Northwestern University Chicago, the “Franz Liszt” Music Academy in Weimar, Germany and since 2016 at the International Montecito Music Festival at La Sierra University, Los Angeles (USA) 

David Yonan studied at the Berlin Music Academy “Hanns Eisler” with Professor Werner Scholz, where he earned his Masters and Soloist Diploma on a scholarship from the prestiguous German Study Foundation and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. He started playing Violin at age 5 and received his early violin training with Abraham Jaffé in Berlin.

In 2000 he was awarded a full Scholarship  by the DAAD-German Academic Exchange Program to pursue postgraduate studies with Dorothy DeLay at the Juiliard School, New York and at Northwestern University Chicago with Profs.Roland and Almita Vamos. 

He received further artistic impulses in  masterclasses and private studies with Ruggiero Ricci (Salzburg), Saschko Gawriloff (Baden-Baden), Christoph Poppen (Berlin)  and with Alice Schoenfeld (Los Angeles)

David Yonan is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Fine Arts Music Society Chicago and International FAMS Festival, which is now in its 14th season, as well as the International Music-and Culture Festival Uckermark, Germany and DIALOGOS Concerts Berlin Germany since 2017.

2020/2021 Season 

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