Sara Pastine

Born in Sarzana, Italy. She received her violin Diploma summa cum laude and with special honors in 2010 from the Istituto Musicale Vecchi-Tonelli of Modena in the class of Paola Besutti, her long-time teacher and mentor. She took her violin Master degree graduation with summa cum laude and special honors in 2019. Since October 2018 she's been studying at the MDW Universität in Wien, (Postgraduate in Chamber Music course) with M° Peter Schuhmayer and M° Johannes Meissl.
She earned a national recognition at the age of 16 when she won top first prize at the Competition "Youth for Youth of Ravenna" and shortly after, received first prize at the "Rassegna di Vittorio Veneto" National String Competition, receiving in addition a special study scholarship; she also won study scholarships in 2010 and 2011 from the "A. Zamparo of Carpi Foundation". In 2010, after winning the auditions for the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra, she then performed with these orchestras worldwide. She has participated in Masterclasses with Kolja Blacher (Florence), Ana Chumachenco (Biella), at the Winterakademie Rüttihubelbad (Walkringen,Berna) with Gerhard Schulz, with R. Schmidt (Mozarteum Salzburg) and Nora Chastain (ZhdK Zurich). In 2012 she became a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, where she played under renowned conductors and with important soloists: Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda, Mischa Maisky, Martha Argerich, Leonidas Kavakos, Maxim Vengerov. In 2014 she was invited to play in the Verbier Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gabor Takacs and in 2018 she was invited to play as co principal at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival Orchestra. She’s often invited to play in Orchestra Leonore and Orchestra da Camera di Mantova. She has performed both as soloist and in various chamber ensembles and projects, in prestigious places: Olimpico in Sabbioneta, Palazzo Tè of Mantova; in the concert season of "Il Suono giovane: Musica a Casa Martelli, Firenze" and in Venice at Ca’ Vendramin Calergi for the festival "I Medici in musica" in Florence at the Medici Chapel, William Walton Association of Ischia and in Carpi’s Castle Festival "Musica e Luoghi". As soloist with the Kelis Ensemble, Sara has appeared in the cities of Florence, Reggio Emilia, the Teatro Pavarotti of Modena (2016). She performed Brandenburg concertos n. 4 and n. 5 with the famous flutists Andrea Oliva, Michele Marasco and Kelis Ensemble.
She was invited to perform at Palazzo Barberini of Rome in the Rome Chamber Music Festival (Artistic Director Robert McDuffie) in 2014. She was a founding member and first violin in the Charis Quartet, performing concerts regularly from 2012 to 2014.
From 2014 until 2018 Sara became one of the youngest members of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI of Turin, having won the position out of 450 candidates at only 23 years old.
In 2017 she recorded the CD/DVD "Wunderkammermusik" for the Limen Music & Arts srl playing compositions by M°Andrea Padova "Capricci for solo violin", published in December 2019.
She played as Concertmaster with the ContempoArtEnsemble for the season 2018-2019 "Maggio Musicale Fiorentino" in Florence.
Since 2016 Sara performs in Duo with the Italian prize-winning pianist Giulia Contaldo. In 2017 the Duo Pastine-Contaldo won the "Festival delle Nazioni A. Burri" chamber music competition in città di Castello and the first prize at "M. Antonelli" International chamber music competition in Latina. In 2018 they won a prize at the "32°Concours de Musique de Chambre FNAPEC" in Paris, at the competition "G. Guglielmo" in Padova and at the OnSTAGE International Chamber music competition. The Duo took masterclasses with: A. Meunier, B. Giuranna, L.M. Aguera.,R. Schmidt, Stefan Mendl and others. They played for important Association and Festivals:
"Lyceum international club" in Florence, Torino "Aurore Musicali", for the Association "Amici della Musica of Modena", Teatro Impavidi in Sarzana, Spoleto "Casa Menotti chamber music festival", Latina "Eleomai" Association, Asolo "International chamber music Festival" in trio with M° Bruno Giuranna, for the Association "Amici della Musica di Padova", "Festival delle Nazioni Città di Castello" they played Bartok "Contrasts" with the famous Copenaghen 1st solo Clarinet: Giovanni Punzi and others.
In 2019 she founded the Quartetto Leonardo with whom she has performed for important chamber music festivals. Since November 2020 they are master students in the Artemis Quartet class at the UdK University in Berlin.
Leonardo Quartet recently won the famous XXXX Musical Critics Award "Franco Abbiati", Premio Farulli for chamber music.
Sara was a violin teacher at "Vecchi-Tonelli" conservatory of Modena from 2017 to 2022. She currently teaches Chamber Music at "T.Schipa" conservatory in Lecce.