JEDDAH: Chloe Chua, junior winner of this year’s world-renowned Menuhin competition, is to perform in Riyadh and Jeddah.

The performances, organized by the General Authority for Culture (GAC) in Saudi Arabia, will take place on Saturday, July 21 at King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh, while Dar Al-Hekma University in Jeddah will host the second concert on Monday, July 23 when Saudi pianist Eman Gusti will also perform.

Chua, the 11-year-old from Singapore, won the competition, considered a major international contest for young violinists.

Her talent began to be recognized when at the age of four she joined the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. She also came first in the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition last year.

She will be accompanied at the Riyadh concert by pianist Gordon Back, artistic director of the Menuhin competition.

Back is a key contributor to major international violin competitions including the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels, the Carl Flesch in London, the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis in the US, and the Menuhin Competition in the UK. 

His recordings include Bach and Schumann sonatas for violin and piano with French violinist Jean-Jacques Kantorow, a series with British clarinetist Emma Johnson, and in 2011 he recorded all of 19th-century Moravian composer Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst’s works with Czech violinist Josef Spacek.

The fact that these two concerts have been organized displays the GAC’s commitment to featuring internationally renowned artists in the Kingdom. This type of event raises awareness of classical music, and is part of the GAC’s drive to provide diverse artistic experiences to audiences in the Kingdom.