Simon Michal was appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in February 2016 by Riccardo Muti. He holds numerous awards from competitions, including the grand prize at both the Kocian International Violin Competition and the International Radio Competition Concertino Prague. Michal made his New York solo debut with the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall under the baton of Fabio Luisi as a winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition in 2014.
As a chamber musician and orchestral player, Michal has performed at many concerts and festivals throughout Europe and North America, including the Verbier Festival, Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Juilliard ChamberFest.
A native of Bezděkov nad Metují, Czech Republic, Simon Michal took his first violin lessons with his father at the age of four. At 14, he was admitted to the Prague Conservatory, where he studied with Jaroslav Foltýn. In 2015, Michal earned a bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and Sylvia Rosenberg. In 2015, Michal started his studies toward a master of music degree with Dicterow and Lisa Kim at the Manhattan School of Music, but left school in 2016 to join the CSO.
