2026 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient

Ilva Eigus, born in Switzerland in 2007, is an exceptional young violin talent. She received her first violin lessons at the age of three from Liana Tretiakova, who subsequently taught her in Zurich for twelve years. Since 2023, she has studied with her mentor Marc Bouchkov, initially the Pre-College of the Royal Conservatory of Liège in Belgium and, starting in 2026, at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Ilva’s talent was recognized early on, and she has been taught by the renowned violin professor Zakhar Bron since the age of seven. She has gained further musical inspiration from renowned artists including Gerhard Schulz, Vadim Gluzman, Janine Jansen, Augustin Dumay, and Maxim Vengerov. Ilva is a scholarship holder of the Verbier Festival Academy, the Seiji Ozawa Academy, IMS Prussia Cove in England and the Music in the Mountains Violin Academy in the USA.

She made her orchestral debut at the age of eight and has since performed with ensembles including the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Prague, and the Bodensee Philharmonie Konstanz, among others.
In 2023, at the age of fifteen, Ilva made her debut at the Tonhalle Zurich performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, appeared at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, and participated as a Junior Soloist in the prestigious Verbier Festival Summer Academy.

Ilva is a multiple first-prize winner of the Swiss Youth Music Competition and has received numerous awards at international competitions, including First Prize at the International Nutcracker Competition (2020), the Rotary Prize at the Verbier Festival (2023), the Swiss Charity Award (2023), First Prize at the Arthur Grumiaux Violin Competition in Brussels (2024), and First Prize at the Grunewald Competition in Berlin (2024). In 2025, she was nominated as a Pirastro Young Artist by Echo Arts Munich.

In 2023, Ilva became an ambassador for the Fondation ART-THERAPIE, whose mission is to promote art therapy programs for young people in Switzerland.
Her playing is distinguished by its precise intonation, depth, and artistic maturity. Ilva performs on a 1707 Omobono Stradivari violin, generously loaned by the Habisreutinger-Huggler-Coray Stradivari Foundation.

©️ Photo: Quim Vilar