David Tobin (21) was born into a musical family in Dublin, Ireland. He is currently undertaking his bachelor degree in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Cologne, with Prof. Michael Vaiman, a protégé of the great David Oistrakh. He had previously studied with Maria Kelemen and Ronald Masin in Dublin and Lydia Mordkovitch in London.
His solo debut with orchestra came at the age of 10 and at 11 he performed as a soloist in the National Concert Hall (NCH) Auditorium for the first time.
In 2014 he performed with the Sinfonieorchester Aachen in Germany where he played “the virtuosic Carmen Fantasy, receiving a rapturous applause”, and the Salut d’Amour which showed “evidence of love for and on the violin”. (Aachener Zeitung).
He has performed concertos by Sibelius, Bruch, Vivaldi and Bach with orchestras such as the Dublin Orchestral Players, DIT Symphony Orchestra and Young European Strings Chamber Orchestra in venues including the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Budapest, Hungary and the NCH.
David is the most successful string player ever at the Feis Ceoil, Ireland, and has had success in international competitions as well, winning prizes in Romania and Estonia. Bursaries won include the RTÉ Lyric FM Award (Feis Ceoil), Gold Award (ABRSM), the Young Musician Award (NCH) and the Alan Gillespie Ulster Bank Award (Clandeboye Festival, N.Ireland), after a “slinkily idiomatic performance of Waxman’s dashing Carmen Fantasy which rightly drew shouts of approval” (Belfast Telegraph).
He has received masterclasses and lessons from world-leading professors such as Mauricio Fuks, Petru Munteanu, Philippe Graffin, David Takeno, Elina Vähälä and Mateja Marinkovic.
He is 1st Violin in the Arioso Quartet, with whom he has given two recitals in both the Music in Drumcliffe Festival, Sligo, and West Cork Chamber Music Festival, as well as the John Field Room, NCH. They have received Masterclasses from chamber musicians including members of the Borodin, Cremona and Danish String Quartets among others, as well as Alina Ibragimova and Robert Kulek.
Leader of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland from 2011-2013, he also has led the YES Chamber Orchestra, the DIT Symphony Orchestra and the Irish National Youth Ballet Orchestra.
David has appeared as a soloist on RTÉ radio and television and has had his own programme on IrishTV’s Classical Music series. He was invited to perform at Áras an Uachtaráin as a guest of former President Mary McAleese and performed in the 2012 Feis Ceoil Gala Concert in the NCH in the presence of President Michael D Higgins.
He has performed as a soloist in Italy, Spain, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Austria and has given solo recitals at the Boyle and Carrick-on-Shannon music festivals. He has also given four successful sold-out evening recitals in the John Field Room, NCH.
