Ilonka Kolthof
Second Prize winner of the 2017 International Kujala Piccolo Artist Competition Ilonka Kolthof is developing an international career as a piccolo soloist. As such, she has performed across the U.S. and Europe, most recently including a solo recital at the 2016 National Flute Association's convention in San Diego. Additionally Kolthof was a Third Prize winner at the 2014 NFA Piccolo Artist Competition in Chicago. This year she will release her first piccolo solo CD on Globe Records.
Kolthof performs many concerts as an orchestral musician and chamber music artist a.o. with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, the Norrköpings Symfoniorkester and the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Kolthof feels equally at home as a concerto soloist; already at the age of 17, she performed as a soloist with the former Limburg Symphony Orchestra. Furthermore, Kolthof played concerts at numerous Dutch festivals, a.o. the Gergiev Festival, November Music, Festival Dag in de Branding, the Grachtenfestival, the International Flute Festival of the Dutch Flute Society and the International Chamber Music Festival of Janine Jansen. Kolthof initiated the Dutch Piccolo Project, through which she aims to emphasize and bring to the limelight the piccolo as an autonomous solo instrument, and as a valuable instrument in smaller-scale chamber music. Closely working with composers, it has resulted, and continues to result, into the creation of many new works for piccolo, to collaborations with internationally acclaimed musicians, to several publications and to substantial media attention. As a result of her commitment to contemporary repertoire, Kolthof was awarded scholarships by the Dutch Prince Bernhard Culture Fund and the Willem Mengelberg Fund of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Foto: Sarah Wijzenbeek