Leonidas Kavakos has established himself as a violinist and artist of rare quality, known at the highest level for his virtuosity, superb musicianship and the integrity of his playing. International recognition came whilst Kavakos was still in his teens. He won the Sibelius competition in 1985 and then the Paganini competition in 1988 and following these successes, he was invited by orchestras across Europe, North America and the Far East and his reputation soared.
Kavakos now appears in concert throughout the world with the great orchestras and conductors and regularly visits the major international festivals with visiting orchestras, in chamber music and in recital.
In the current season, Kavakos appears with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, La Scala Filharmonica, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, NDR Symphonieorchester Hamburg, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and at the Ravenna Festival with Riccardo Chailly. Other conductors Kavakos will be working with include Herbert Blomstedt, Pierre Boulez, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Valery Gergiev, Ivan Fischer, Daniel Harding, Zubin Mehta, Christian Thielemann and Osmo Vänskä.
In October 2007, Kavakos took up the position of Artistic Director of the Camerata Salzburg, succeeding Sir Roger Norrington. He conducts twice each season in the Camerata's Abonnement series in the Mozarteum, Salzburg as well as appearing at the Salzburg Festival, the Mozartwoche and in their own festival, the Begegnung. This season, together with the Camerata Salzburg, he appears in two concerts in the Konzerthaus, Vienna and later in the season he gives concerts in Athens and Germany. He has previously taken the orchestra on tour to Italy, Germany, Spain and Greece and in February 2006, he presented the Camerata Salzburg in his own festival at the Megaron, Athens, in which he played five Mozart concerti and conducted three late symphonies. The concerti and Symphony No. 39 were subsequently released by Sony to wide acclaim. The Sunday Times wrote that this “…grand account of the great E flat major symphony suggests he will be as formidable a director of this superb chamber orchestra as he is a soloist.”
Kavakos is an established chamber musician and collaborates with many distinguished partners - Heinrich Schiff, Natalia Gutman, Emanuel Ax, Lars Vogt, Elisabeth Leonskaya. Last season he gave recitals in the major cities of Italy, in Paris and Bordeaux, Madrid, Bilbao, Copenhagen, Stockholm, London and a series of chamber music recitals at the Verbier Festival and the Salzburg Festival. He was also resident at the Concertgebouw in a dedicated weekend of recital and chamber music as well as in concert with the Camerata Salzburg.
In addition to his most recent disc of the Mozart concerti with the Camerata Salzburg, Kavakos has a distinguished catalogue of recordings. In 1991, he won the Gramophone Award for the first recording ever of the original version of Sibelius’ violin concerto (1903/04) on BIS. Further recordings include the violin concerto by Hindemith with the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos), solo sonatas by Ysaÿe (BIS), works by Debussy, Kreisler, Paganini et al (Delos) as well as Sibelius’ Humoresques (Finlandia). On ECM, he has released a recording of sonatas by Enescu and Ravel together with pianist Péter Nagy and a recording of works by Bach and Stravinsky which received the following accolade, "...the exquisite tenderness of the playing gives the music a sense of timeless, poignant beauty...the performance here is exceptional for its unruffled poise and delicious details. Not to be missed". Gramophone May 2005
Leonidas Kavakos plays the “Falmouth” Stradivarius of 1692.
Audio clips:
Duo Concertant: Dithyrambe and Suite Italienne: Scherzino from the album Bach / Stravinsky by Leonidas Kavakos (violin) and Peter Nagy (piano) courtesy of ECM.
