Leonidas Kavakos

Leonidas Kavakos
File:Kavakos22.jpg
Born	(1967-10-30) October 30, 1967 Greece

Leonidas Kavakos (born 30 October 1967) (Greek: Λεωνίδας Καβάκος) is a Greek violinist.

Beginnings

Born in Athens into a musical family, Kavakos began studying violin at five years old and continued his studies at the Hellenic Conservatory with Stelios Kafantaris. An Onassis Foundation scholarship enabled him to attend master classes with Josef Gingold at Indiana University. He made his concert debut at the Athens Festival in 1984. In 1985, at age 18 (the youngest contestant), he won the International Sibelius Competition in Helsinki and in 1986 won silver medal in the Indianapolis International Violin Competition. He also took first prizes at the Naumburg Competition in New York (1988) and the Paganini Violin Competition (1988)—all by the age of 21.

Performances

America

His United States debut was in 1986, and, the following year, he gave recitals at venues across the country. Kavakos now tours North America annually and works with numerous major orchestras, including the Chicago, and Montreal Symphony Orchestras.

Europe

In Europe, following his competition win in Helsinki, Kavakos' reputation spread quickly. He now works extensively in major concert halls across the continent, working with world class orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. He has appeared at festivals such as the Verbier Festival, Salzburg Festival, where he first appeared in 1994, the Lucerne Festival, and the Stars of White Nights Festival. In 1991, Sibelius' Violin Concerto in d minor (mostly unknown to the world at large until then), was permitted a performance and a recording by Sibelius's heirs on the BIS record label; both were played by Leonidas Kavakos and conducted by Osmo Vänskä. He has appeared throughout the UK with numerous orchestras, starting in 1992 performing the Stravinsky concerto at the London Proms. He is currently the artist in residence at the Berlin Philharmonic.

Asia

Kavakos made a highly successful Japanese debut in 1988 including a recital at Tokyo's Casals Hall and has since toured Japan with the English Chamber Orchestra and given concerts with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic.

He was called "The Violinists' Violinist" by the Strad Magazine.

Recordings

Having won the Sibelius contest, Kavakos went on to win another coveted distinction, once again working on Sibelius. He won the 1991 Gramophone Concerto of the Year Award for the world premiere release on the BIS label of the Sibelius Violin Concerto in both its final version and in the original 1903/04, version. He has made various other recordings for Delos and Finlandia Records with works by composers such as Debussy, Paganini, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Wieniawski and Ysaÿe. 2006 he recorded for Sony/BMG the five violin concertos and one symphony by Mozart, as soloist and conductor of the Camerata Salzburg. For his recording as conductor and soloist of the Mendelssohn Violinkonzert e-Moll op. 64 with the Camerata he was awarded with the "ECHO-Klassik 2009" prize in the category "recording of the year - concerts - 19th century - violin".

Chamber music

Kavakos is also a keen chamber music performer, and presents his own chamber music festival annually in his home town of Athens as well as performing in many international festivals.

Conducting

Kavakos is also working as a conductor. He was announced principal guest artist of the Camerata Salzburg in 2001 and performed with them as a soloist and conductor. He is designated as artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg and followed Sir Roger Norrington 2007 in this position. On July 1, 2009 he announced his resignation from his position as artistic director that fall. Kavakos explained that he could not hope to perform his duties as artistic director in setting a creative direction for the ensemble in the face of ongoing turmoil in the ensemble's management (7 complete changes in 8 years), a recent motion of no confidence (in the current management) passed by the ensemble's musicians, as well as the failure of musicians and staff to inform him of that vote, suggesting communication within the organisation had completely broken down.

Instruments

Kavakos plays the "Abergavenny" Stradivarius of 1724 from February 2010. He has sold the "Falmouth" Stradivarius of 1692, and a 1782 violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (Torino). Kavakos now owns only the Abergavenny and three modern violins (as of September 4, 2010).

External links

• Intermusica Kavakos page
• North American management: Opus 3 Artists LLC