Postgraduate studies

The violinist Ion-Alexandru Malaimare was born and began his musical studies in Romania. An integral part of his career development as a musician was winning the scholarship offered by SoNoRo Chamber Music Workshops.

He participated in masterclasses with renowned artists such as Rachel Barton Pine, Almita Vamos, Ronny Rogoff, Helmuth Nicolai (Rosamunde Quartet), to name a few.

Some of Ion-Alexandru Malaimare’s awards

He participated in numerous competitions and was the 1st Prize winner at the Young Artist Competition of MTNA and the University of Illinois Concerto Competition. With his quartet, he won awards at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and the New York Artists International Competition, which included an invitation to perform a recital at Carnegie Hall.

Artistic and pedagogical activity

Ion-Alexandru Malaimare has performed in recitals and concerts in Europe and United States.

He served as Concertmaster of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Principal Second violin of the Heartland Symphony Orchestra, and Evansville Philharmonic. Ion-Alexandru is a member of the residence quartet at the University of Evansville, and Adjunct Violin Professor at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Among other activities, he searches to expand his repertoire to include fiddle music of Romania and works from movie soundtracks. He is featured as a member of the music department for the Live Cinema workshop ‘Distant Vision’ of Francis Ford Coppola, broadcasted on July 22nd, 2016. He is interested in expanding his audience beyond the traditional concert hall. He started a TikTok channel (@1violin1bow). Together with his wife, violist YooBin Lee, created a YouTube Channel (The Eight Strings) featuring music videos for viola & violin.

He recently participated in an online lecture-recital for the prestigious music festival in Bayreuth, Germany.

More recently, he appeared on the faculty roster at Millikin University and Knox College and is the Illinois Symphony Orchestra manager.

Ion-Alexandru plays on an Ultralight violin made by Canadian American luthier Joseph Curtin.

He honors us by being a member of the Jury of the International Strings & Chamer Music Competition.

You also can listen to his music at https://www.groupmuse.com/musicians/7439-ion-alexandru-malaimare.