School of Music

Julieta Mihai, D.M.A.
Associate Professor, Violin
Browne 120
Cellphone: (309) 331-3835
Email: J-Mihai@wiu.edu
https://julietamihai.org/

Julieta Mihai, a versatile violinist and chamber musician, is associate professor of violin at Western Illinois University School of Music in Macomb. She is also a member of the Julstrom String Quartet.

Julieta has performed extensively in solo concerts and recitals in Austria, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Romania and the United States. Her performances have been broadcast on radio stations such as WILL-FM, WUIS (Springfield, Illinois), Tri States Public Radio (Illinois, Iowa and Missouri) and the National Radio Station in Bucharest, Romania.

Currently, her violin studio at Western Illinois University is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students from Europe, Asia, and the United States. Her students are winners of prestigious regional and national competitions in the USA including two national winners of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artist String Competition. They also won concerto competitions at Western Illinois University and Brevard Summer Festival. Her students have gone on to receive graduate assistantships for masters and doctorate programs at some of the best schools of music. Also, they were awarded stipends at prestigious summer festivals such as Brevard Summer Festival and Manchester Music Festival.

From August 2001 until May 2013, Julieta served as concertmaster of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in Springfield.

Highlights of her recent seasons include performances of works such as Sibelius Concerto, Beethoven Concerto, Beethoven Triple Concerto and Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello with various North American orchestras. She participated in a Romanian concert tour of early XXth century works at the Romanian Atheneum, Bucharest, and at the Peleş Castle, Sinaia. As part of the WIU Faculty Chamber Ensemble conducted by Dr. Mike Fansler, she performed and recorded for the first time Jim Stephenson’s Devil’s Tale. Julieta performed recitals at Carnegie Hall (Weill Hall), Krannert Center of the Performing Arts, Romanian Atheneum, and other important venues. She had the privilege to collaborate with the Illinois Chamber and Symphony Orchestras in the performance of solo works such as: Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Mozart No. 4, Sibelius, Bach Brandenburg No. 4 and 5, and Beethoven Romances No. 1 and 2. The concerts were broadcast on the WUIS radio station. Among other ensembles, she performed solo works with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana, Berkeley Summer Festival Orchestra, the Prairie Ensemble, the Summer Festival Orchestra of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ploiesti Philharmonic Orchestra, and Craiova Philharmonic Orchestra.

She was invited to play recitals and give master classes at schools including Florida State University, Towson University, Southern Illinois University, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Crane School of Music, Illinois Wesleyan University, St. Olaf College, and Arizona State University at Tempe.

A Romanian Violin Competition prizewinner, she is also the winner of other competitions, including the Concerto

Competition of the Summer Festival Orchestra in Urbana- Champaign. Ms. Mihai is the recipient of the Paul Rolland

Violin Award of the University of Illinois.

Ms. Mihai began studying the violin at the age of six at the School of Music in Ploiesti, Romania. At the age of eleven, she continued her studies at the National College of Music "George Enescu" in Bucharest, and later at the Academy of Music "Gheorghe Dima" in Cluj and the Academy of Music in Bucharest. From age fourteen to eighteen, she studied with Valeriu Rogacev. She continued her undergraduate studies under the guidance of Andras Agoston and Ferdinand Weiss (Cluj), Octavian Ratiu, Dumitru Avakian and Stefan Gheorghiu (Bucharest), and graduate studies with Sherban Lupu and Danwen Jiang (Champaign-Urbana). During summers 2002 and 2003, she attended the Toho Gakuen Music Academy in Kureha, Japan, where she appeared in solo and chamber music recitals. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Doctorate in Musical Arts degree in May 2003.

Ms. Mihai plays on a 1788 Giuseppe Gagliano violin. Her Baroque bow is made by Ralph Ashmead.

Eugène Ysaÿe Sonata No. 6 for solo violin, Op. 27 - audio