Samuel Nebyu

Violinist/Hungary-Ethiopia

Samuel is the winner of numerous national  and international competitions including Grand prizes at the National ASTA (American String Teachers  Association) Solo Competition (2015),  “Remember Enescu” International Violin Competition (Romania, 2013), the Flame International Violin Competition (Paris, 2008), and the Beverly Hills National Auditions (CA, 2014).  Born in Hungary of Ethiopian-Hungarian descent, Samuel spent most of his early childhood in Asia.  He started playing the violin at the age of six; at fifteen, he was admitted to the Young Talents Program at the Brussels Royal Conservatory where he received tutelage from renowned musicians, including Igor Oistrakh.  Samuel was a violinist-in-residence for several years at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium. He continued his education in the US in the international violin class of Professor Eduard Schmieder at Boyer College of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he received his BM, MM, and in May 2022, became a DMA. From 2017, Samuel teaches at the Community Music Scholars Program at Temple University.

Samuel has performed as soloist with number of orchestras, including the Brussels Philharmonic, at important international music festivals, and in venues such as the Centre of Performing Arts in Brussels (BOZAR), the Peles Castle in Romania, the Wiener Saal in Salzburg, and Alice Tully Hall in New York.
In 2015, he was selected as an iPalpiti Junior and was a featured soloist with iPalpiti orchestra in Los Angeles at the Wallis Annenberg Center. Since, he has returned to iPalpiti every season; in 2017 he was featured in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with iPalpiti alumnus violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and in 2019 was a soloist in a West Coast premiere of Alexey Shor “Seascapes” violin concerto at the Conrad Performing Arts Center in La Jolla and at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills.
In 2016, Samuel received the prestigious Clifton Emerging Artist Award and gave a recital at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia; same year he became a prize winner of the Mozarteum Salzburg Festpiel competition – the only one of 291 violinists to be selected as one of the eight prize winners – and was further honored to conclude the winners concert at the Mozarteum Grosse Saal. 
Highlights of the recent seasons included performance of a Concerto for Violin with Choir and Orchestra by Jennifer Higdon at Kimmel Center Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, recital with Professor Lambert Orkis (long-time piano partner of violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter),  a recital with Prof. Charles Abramovic (the collaborative pianist of Midori) at LACMA’s Sundays Live! Livestream series, and a South America’ tour with Mutter’s Virtuosi. Samuel is the 3rd iPalpiti artist chosen by the great violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter for her foundation (prior artists were cellist Kian Soltani and bassist Roman Patkolo). 
His CD “Violin Gems from Black Composers” was released on BCM+D label in 2018; selected for Grammy nomination, it was named Best Album of the Year by numerous classic radio stations across the nation, including KUSC-FM.  This spring, Samuel performed Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Temple Orchestra. After iPalpiti festival, he will give a solo recital at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.
This is Samuel’s 7thseason with iPalpiti.