THE MARY and JAMES G. WALLACH ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE LEONIDAS KAVAKOS in BRIEF the New York Philharmonic Has Named Violinist Leonid

THE MARY AND JAMES G. WALLACH ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE LEONIDAS KAVAKOS

IN BRIEF

The New York Philharmonic has named violinist Leonidas Kavakos The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence for the 2016–17 season. Mr. Kavakos’s residency will feature three solo appearances — one of which will also mark his Philharmonic conducting debut — as well as a recital performance with pianist Yuja Wang, presented by the Philharmonic in association with Lincoln Center’s Great Performers, and a Young People’s Concert.

Biography By age 21, violinist Leonidas Kavakos had already won three major competitions: the Sibelius in 1985, and the Paganini and Naumburg in 1988. These successes led to his making the first recording in history of the original Sibelius Violin Concerto (1903–04), which won the 1991 Gramophone Concerto of the Year Award. Mr. Kavakos has appeared regularly as soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Christoph Eschenbach and Riccardo Chailly), Berlin Philharmonic (Simon Rattle), Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Mariss Jansons and Daniele Gatti), London Symphony Orchestra (Valery Gergiev and Rattle), Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra (Chailly), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Highlights of the 2015–16 season include performances with the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, San Francisco and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, and tours with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra to the U.S., and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra to Spain. He also presents a Beethoven sonata cycle at the Dresden Music Festival. As conductor he has worked with the Atlanta, Boston, London, and Vienna symphony orchestras, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Budapest Festival Orchestra. This season Mr. Kavakos returns to conduct the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and makes conducting debuts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bamberg, Danish National, and Netherlands Radio symphony orchestras. An exclusive Decca Classics recording artist, his first release with the label, Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas with Enrico Pace (January 2013), earned him the ECHO Klassik Instrumentalist of the Year award. He followed with Brahms’s Violin Concerto with Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, led by Riccardo Chailly (October 2013), and Brahms’s violin sonatas with Yuja Wang (March 2014). He received the 2014 Gramophone Artist of the Year award. His earlier discography includes a recording of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (ECHO Klassik Best Concerto Recording), and of Mozart’s Violin Concertos, conducting and playing with Camerata Salzburg. Raised in a musical family in Athens, Greece, Mr. Kavakos curated a chamber music cycle for 15 years at the Megaron Athens Concert Hall. He plays the “Abergavenny” Stradivarius violin of 1724.

New York Philharmonic Highlights Leonidas Kavakos made his New York Philharmonic debut in 2002 performing Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy conducted by Bramwell Tovey on Central Park’s Great Lawn during the Concerts in the Parks. By the end of the 2015–16 season he will have appeared with the Philharmonic 38 times. Highlights include Dutilleux’s L’Arbre des songes (December 2005, led by Iván Fischer); Sibelius’s Violin Concerto on the EUROPE / AUTUMN 2010 tour led by Alan Gilbert; and, in a chamber appearance on a Saturday Matinee Concert, Schubert’s String Quintet in C major alongside Alan Gilbert on violin and Philharmonic musicians. In March 2016 Leonidas Kavakos will perform Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, led by Alan Gilbert.

CHRONOLOGICAL LISTING OF LEONIDAS KAVAKOS’S 2016–17 SEASON

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE LEONIDAS KAVAKOS CONDUCTS AND PERFORMS