Bringing together love, curiosity and imagination: catching up with violinist Hawijch Elders

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Dutch violinist Hawijch Elders won the inaugural Antonio Mormone International Prize in 2025. As part of her victory, Elders received the opportunity to record her debut album, resulting in her recording Visions for Violin. Elders will present her new album at the Ridotto of Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 19 October, with release of the album on 23 October.

The album brings together music from three different centuries and features works by Bach, Paganini, Ysaÿe, Kreisler, Ernst and Vacchi. Elders aims to approach the repertoire as a means of exploring the violin’s different expressive identities.

Elders caught up with The Strad to share what life has been like after her competition victory, as well as what listeners can expect from her new album.

What are your fondest memories of the 2025 Antonio Mormone International Prize? How do you feel that the competition helped launch your career? 

One of my most special memories from the Antonio Mormone International Prize was performing Paganini’s Violin Concerto no.1 at Teatro alla Scala. It was an incredible moment for me and one I will never forget.

There is something magical about performing in such an iconic hall, but knowing that this is also where Niccolò Paganini himself made his debut in 1813 made this experience even more extraordinary.

The competition has a very different and innovative way of unfolding. The whole process lasted around 18 months, with recitals and chamber music at different stages, and a different jury for each round. It gave me time to grow as an artist and, importantly, the opportunity to develop and present my own artistic identity. It wasn’t simply about winning a prize.

Winning the competition opened many international doors, including solo debuts with orchestras and new artistic collaborations. One of the biggest dreams that came true through this journey was the opportunity to record my debut album Visions for Violin, which will be available from 23 October, released by Decca Italy, Universal Music Group. 

I’m incredibly happy to finally share it with the world!

Tell us about some career highlights for you since the competition. What are some exciting performance engagements you have coming up?

There have been so many exciting things happening since the competition. Just recently, I made my debut at the famous Prinsengrachtconcert in Amsterdam. Sharing the stage with artists including Leif Ove Andsnes and Sol Gabetta. Seeing the whole of Amsterdam come together on a canal, was one of those unforgettable moments that reminds me just how lucky I am to do what I do.

Over the past year, I’ve also made my debut with several wonderful orchestras, including the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. This coming season I will also return to orchestras I’ve worked with before, such as the Nürnberger Symphoniker and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. I’ll be performing Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Paganini concertos and more.

There are several orchestral debuts I’m really looking forward to, including with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra and the Bursa Regional State Symphony Orchestra.

Another important part of last season was the AVROTROS Virtuoos project, hosted by Dutch public broadcaster AVROTROS. And I’m also very proud to be joining the Classeek Ambassador Programme for 2026/27.

As part of your competition victory, you have recorded your debut solo album, which contains some staple violin repertoire such as Bach’s Chaconne, Paganini and Ysaÿe. Why have you chosen to record this repertoire at this stage in your career, and what is the significance of these works to you? 

My album Visions for Violin is a homage to the violin and to the visionaries who took the instrument to new heights and depths: Bach, Paganini, Ysaÿe, Kreisler, Ernst and Vacchi. I owe my own voice to all of them because each showed me a different possibility of what the violin can express.

When I first held a violin at the age of six, something immediately clicked. I remember telling everyone quite soon afterwards, ’I’m going to become a violinist.’ The repertoire on this album reflects that lifelong love and curiosity for the instrument.

Bach’s Chaconne has been with me since I was twelve. It is one of those pieces you can study for your entire life and still feel that you have only begun to understand it. When I play it, I imagine building a cathedral of sound: you have to see the whole architecture while taking care of every individual note.

Then there is Paganini, who represents almost the opposite side of the instrument. His music is theatrical, virtuosic and almost demonic. When I discovered the 24th Caprice, I immediately became obsessed with it.

Ysaÿe is particularly important to me because of my connection with the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, where I’m an Associate Artist.

Kreisler and Ernst bring yet another side of the violin: its warmth, charm and endless virtuosity. In Ernst’s The Last Rose of Summer, you could almost imagine three or four violinists playing at the same time.

Fabio Vacchi brings us into the present with his Sonatina V, commissioned for the Antonio Mormone International Prize. I found it a mysterious and capricious piece, full of colours.

My love, curiosity and imagination are what brought this album together. I hope the listener will let their imagination wander with me into the multidimensional world of the violin. The album will be released at Teatro alla Scala, and I can’t wait to return to the place where this journey began.