ABOUT THE 2022/23 GRAUMAN FELLOW
Artem Diaz Kolesov Fominyx is a performing artist from Maloyaroslavetz, Russia. Described by Chicago Tribune as “a violinist of fine promise,” Artem is the first person in his family’s history to become a musician and perform professionally. He will be performing at the Bram Goldsmith Theater at The Wallis on Saturday, June 3, 2023. For additional information about the event or to purchase tickets go to www.annenberg.org.
At a very young age Artem showed interest in music. Others noticed his extraordinary talent and encouraged by his family and friends, he entered and won local competitions, making him the first of his family to become a professional. His winning regular stipends greatly improved his daily life. He and his five brothers performed locally, making the focus of their performance’s European folk and classical music. Their names quickly spread across Russia and the Ukraine and they became extremely popular. In the early 2000s and while at the heights of the rapid privatization of education Artem’s music lessons grew ever more expensive causing him to use his stored winnings from stipends and collecting monies from his family by selling his uncle’s honey on the streets where he and his brothers would donate and collect bottles and tin cans.
After his winning the International Young Artist violin competition in Tallin Astonia. Artem was awarded first place Gran Prix at Frieberg International competition in Germany. During this time he was invited to perform with the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic when he was only age 15. With such outstanding performances Artem attained a full scholarship to study with the famed Phillippe Djokic at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. This chain of events would lead him to go on to win the Canadian National Festival in the categories of solo violin and chamber group. With such a prestigious reckoning of events Artem traveled across the country soloing with well-known orchestras. As an avid chamber musician, he worked with the great Ying, Pacifica, Juilliard, and Toka String Quartets. He appeared as a guest at the St. Cecilia and the music room concert series for three seasons where he performed chamber works with other established professionals from around the globe.
Artem continued to work with community leaders volunteering at soup kitchens, homeless shelters offering free translation services at non-profit refugee centers while in Halifax. Taking the journey from Canada to Chicago to study with Almita Vamoshe he won the CCPA Competition and performed at the Brahm Violin Concerto in the Chicago Symphony Hall. Adversity rearing its ugly face this time in the guise of his not being allowed to work as an international student and a lack of housing Artem continued to maintain financial stability playing as a soloist and chamber musician. As a former member of the Yas Quartet in 2016 he became a prize winner at the Schoenfeld International Competition and a guest artist at the Colorado Music Festival.
As an artivist and adamant believer, everyone should have free access. Artem is brilliant and presently getting his Doctor of Musical Arts under the tutelage of Bing Wang at the University of Southern California. His flexibility and progressive thinking provide an open an honest platform for those in the neighborhood of West Adams who participate giving them equal access to free lessons. Artem has an incredible amount of energy enough to spare and teach piano and violin privately at Yamaha Studios in Torrance, California.
His People’s Ensemble project is nothing short of brilliant as he collectively teaches music to those underprivileged children, adults and all who have an interest in communities where there are no tools education or access to anything creatively. His fellowship empowers these communities to express themselves in their own way individually, confidently and without remorse or criticism. It allows them to join the billions of others who walked this earth long before them and who made art the basis of their lives for over a million years.
His Graupman’s Fellow with the Wallis invites his tremendous spirit and gift of musical talent a way to work intimately with an education and community outreach team to help to develop his People’s Ensemble project. He is in the process of creating a rigorous recital and recording and grants him mental and spiritual access to a place where music that he creates and inspires others to do the same by touching anyone, anywhere all at once .
