Preston Hawes
Hailed by the European Academy of Arts and Sciences as an “electrifying and virtuosic” performer with “exquisite taste and rare talent” (János Czifra, ASAE) Canadian violinist, Preston Hawes is the protégé of the late Dr. Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse. A finalist and laureate of the Concours de Musique Du Canada, winner of the Andrews International Music Competitions, the Prix de Musique de Chambre à Fontainebleau, recipient of the JC Van Hulsteyn award and Peabody Career Grant, Hawes has been heard as a soloist in over 35 countries in notable venues including The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Plovdiv Symphony Hall, Moscow’s House of Culture, Târgu Mures Cultural Palace, and Windsor Castle. Preston has been a featured performer at the Meadowmount School, the Conservatoire Américain, and the Taos Music Festival, among others. As the Foreign Musical Ambassador for The Hope of Bangkok charity Hawes was granted a personal audience with HRH Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana of Thailand in recognition of charitable artistic contributions in Bangkok.
Hawes an Associate Performer of the Royal Conservatory at the age of 16 and after studies at the Mannes College of Music, he was designated a Stephen Hendel scholar at Yale University where he earned a Master of Music degree and the coveted Artist Diploma. In 2015 Preston earned the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the Peabody Institute of Music having authoring a monograph entitled “The Programmatic and Biographical Nature of Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade, after Plato: Symposium“. While maintaining a busy concert and conducting schedule, and appearing internationally as a clinician and adjudicator, Dr. Hawes is a Professor of Music, and Director of Orchestral Studies at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, MD, and Artistic Director and concertmaster of the New England Symphonic Ensemble.
A discerning bow collector, Hawes regularly performs with bows by makers such as Canadian archetiers Michael Vann, and Emmanuel Bégin, the American contemporary maker Morgan Andersen, as well as fine antiques by various makers including Hill & Sons, Marcel LaPierre, Victor François Fétique, and Jean “Grand” Adam.
