The prestigious Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has awarded 17-year old violinist Chad Hoopes the Audience Award at its most recent competition. Hoopes joins the ranks of other well-known artists to win Meck-Pomm awards, including cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, and violinists Julia Fischer, Nikolaj Znaider, and Daniel Hope. The American violinist Hoopes has been appearing with numerous ensembles throughout the world since he won the first prize at the Young Artists Division of the 2008 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition.

This season, Hoopes is the third artist-in-residence in the history of the Classical Minnesota Public Radio. As part of MPR’s artist-in-residence program, Hoopes plays concerts throughout the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area and participates and leads educational activities at local schools, talking about the importance of music and the arts. He is often joined by Classical MPR host Steve Staruch, and blogs about his experiences at classicalmpr.org.

His recent debuts include such orchestras as the Vancouver Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Utah Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Houston Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Brussels Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and Trondheim Symphony. He has recently collaborated with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada.

• 1