Sharon de Kock
Position: Violinist
Department: Odeion String Quartet / Music
A: Musiek IB36 Office: 46A 202
E: dekocksh@ufs.ac.za
T: +27 51 401 3348
Biography
Sharon de Kock, violinist, has been a member of the quartet and lecturer in violin at the UFS since 2008. After studying with Louis van der Watt, Prof Jürgen Schwietering and Gina Beukes (both Julliard alumni), she left South Africa to study in the USA at the age of 17. She is a BMus (magna cum laude) and MMus graduate of the University of Cincinnati, where she received numerous awards and prizes. She studied under the well-known concert violinist Chee-Yun Kim, Prof Kurt Sassmannshaus and Piotr Milewski, all Juilliard alumni.
She also received regular chamber music coachings from Lee Fiser (Cellist of the La Salle Quartet), Peter Oundjian (Tokio String quartet) as well as violin masterclasses with Dorothy DeLay.
From 1999 to 2001 she was a first violinist in the National Symphony Orchestra in Costa Rica. She has performed as soloist and orchestral player with orchestras in Peru, Guatemala, Mexico and Spain, as well as the Kentucky Symphony, Richmond Symphony and Dayton Symphony Orchestras in the USA. She performed with numerous artists including the Grammy winner and actor Ruben Blades and Aretha Franklin.
From 2004 to 2006 she was a violin lecturer at two universities and a conservatoire in Puebla, Mexico. Sharon also participated in the Aspen and Grandin festivals in the USA, the Lucca festival in Italy and others in Japan, Scotland and Portugal. She returned to South Africa in 2007 and performs regularly as soloist and chamber musician.
She was the primary instructor of the Junior Odeion String Quartet, established in 2009.