WMU HOME > ABOUT WMU > WMU NEWS Violist Antoine Tamestit performs in Dalton Center Nov. 3, 2004 KALAMAZOO--French violist Antoine Tamestit, who won the 2003 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, performs in a single concert at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9, in the Dalton Center Recital Hall at Western Michigan University. Tamestit's awards include First Prize in the 2001 William Primrose International Viola Competition in Chicago and the First Prize and the Sacem Prize for Best Interpretation of the Contemporary Piece at the 2000 Maurice Vieux International Viola Competition in Paris. Tamestit was born in Paris in 1979. He began to play the violin at the age 6, but fell in love with the deeper voice of the viola at the age of 10. A student of Jean Sulem, Tamestit graduated from the Paris Conservatory in 1999. Tamestit earned a master's degree from Yale University on a Fulbright Scholarship from the Franco-American Commission and a Lavoisier Scholarship from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At Yale, he worked with alumni of YCA: violist Jesse Levine and the Tokyo String Quartet. Tamestit now works with Tabea Zimmermann in Berlin. Over the past two decades at the Young Concert Artists series at Western Michigan University's School of Music has consistently introduced the finest of young classical musicians to the community just as they are achieving national and international prominence. The Young Concert Artist Series supports three-day residencies by each of the four musicians presented annually. These residencies include, along with their formal concerts, master classes, lecture demonstrations, informal performances in retirement homes, and in the public and private schools throughout the community. Program funding for the Young Concert Artists series is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation. General admission tickets for Antoine Tamestit at WMU are $10 and $5 for students and seniors citizens, and are available through the Miller Auditorium Ticket Office at (269) 387-2300 and toll free (800) 228-9858. Media contact: Kevin West, 269 387-4678, kevin.west@wmich.edu WMU News Office of University Relations Western Michigan University 1903 W Michigan Ave Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA 269 387-8400 www.wmich.edu/wmu/news