Ilona Sie Dhian Ho is professor of Violin at the Royal
Conservatoire and the Prince Claus Conservatoire in the Netherlands. Next to
her professorship she is teaching at the Shenzhen Arts School in China and has given
masterclasses in the USA and throughout Europe, most recently (2022) at the
Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin. Since 2018 she is a member of the Artistic Board
of Dutch Violin Competitions.
Her first performance at age 13 was broadcasted live
by Dutch National Radio. She was described as a “genuinely solistic
personality” in the review of her performance of the Beethoven violin concerto
in the Concertgebouw (De Volkskrant). As concertmaster of the Jeunesses
Musicales World Youth Orchestra she performed the Manhattan Concerto by
Siegried Matthus in major concert halls like the Berlin Philharmonic.
She graduated in The Netherlands with Davina van Wely
and continued her education in the USA, for which she was awarded a Fulbright
Grant and scholarships by several funds like the Netherlands-America foundation
and Fund for the Performing Arts. She studied in the US with Mauricio Fuks, a
student of Ivan Galamian and Jascha Heifetz, and chamber music with Rostislav Dubinsky,
the founder of the Borodin Quartet.
She discovered her passion for teaching when she
worked as Fuks’assistant at masterclasses in Salzburg (Sommer Akademie
Mozarteum) and Paris (Chateau de Champs). Subsequently she taught young
talented violinists at the USA String Academy in Bloomington, Indiana.
After a short career as performer, she devoted herself
to teaching entirely. She was appointed Professor of Violin at Dutch
Conservatoires aged 28 and has established an acclaimed international class
with young talents as well as Master students. Her approach of making students
independent by teaching them how to practice, has been used to develop an
elective at conservatoires. She has also given several workshops for violin
pedagogues, organized by the European String Teachers Association.
Next to her teaching activities Ilona Sie Dhian Ho has
started a research group to develop ways to successfully give classical
concerts for children, in collaboration with Leiden University.
She plays a Lorenzo Ventapane violin (1802) and
Charles Peccatte bow.