Biography
Violinist Joel Munday performs internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster. He maintains a busy concert schedule, and has given concerts in Europe, America and Asia. While his extensive repertoire incorporates all of the major violin works, he has a particular interest in exploring less-known and contemporary music. He has had the pleasure to work on the violin repertoire of Lera Auerbach with Vadim Gluzman, for whom it was written, and has himself commissioned new music from several next-generation composers, including Peter Clarke and Jonathan Hayward.
Joel has won top prizes at numerous international violin competitions, including first prize at the Royal College of Music Concerto Competition (2017), first prize at the Two Moors Festival (2016), third prize at Whitgift International Music Competition (2017), String Prize at the Gregynog Young Musician Competition (2018) and Sponsors Award at the Pila Festival and Academy (2021).
Joel made his concerto debut at age 15, performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh. In 2017, he performed Korngold’s Violin Concerto with the Royal College of Music Junior Department Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jacques Cohen. The same year he was invited to perform his debut concert at the Wigmore Hall and became a Festival Artist for the Two Moors Festival for which he presented a number of critically acclaimed recitals. He appears regularly as soloist with numerous UK-based symphony and chamber orchestras, and the 22/23 season will see him perform concerti by Bach, Mozart and Brahms. He regularly works with renowned pianist Lucas Krupinski, with whom he organised and performed a number of highly successful live-streamed recitals during the Covid-19 pandemic. These were broadcast from the home of Lady Camilla Panufnik to homes around the globe.
Joel has been invited to festivals and mastercourses including Encuentro de Musica de Santander XXI, Keshet Eilon Mastercourse, Bowdoin International Music Festival, New Virtuosi Mastercourse, Friend's International Violin Academy, ISA University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Erben Geigenbau Masterclasses Munich, and Pila Music Festival, Poland.
In July 2022, Joel graduated his Batchelor degree with First Class Honours at the Royal College of Music, where he held a scholarship to study with Professor Schnarch. September 2022 sees him commence a Postgraduate degree at the Royal College of Music, also as a scholar, studying with Daniel Rowland.
Joel plays a violin by the world-renowned luthier Florian Leonhard, which is kindly on loan from the RCM. He is grateful for the generous support of Talent Unlimited, the Joanna Leach Foundation, Help Musicians, the Dulce Haigh Marshall Trust and the Isca Ensemble.
