THE Academy of Athensat its plenary session of 17 March 2022, elected, as Regular Member in the announced Chair of Music in the 2nd Class of Letters and Fine Arts, the Leonida Kavakoviolinist and conductor of international recognition.
O Leonidas Kavakos He was born in Athens to a musical family in October 1967. He took his first steps on the violin (from the age of 6) with his father, a distinguished violinist of the Athens State Orchestra, Konstantinos Kavakos. He continued his studies at the Hellenic Conservatory with Stelios Kafantaris, graduating with a first prize and a gold medal (awarded for the first time in the history of the Conservatory). After graduating, he pursued higher studies at Indiana Bloomington University in the USA with a scholarship from the Alexander Onassis Foundation, where he studied under the distinguished violinist Josef Gingold. He then developed a remarkable career in his field.
In Hellas The Leonidas Kavakos first appeared in Herod in the Athens Festival the 1984 and has given various concerts as he has been collaborating with Athens Concert Hall (MMA), while for 15 years he presented him with great success Chamber Music circle in the MMA. He has collaborated and conducted the Athens State Orchestra and, at the same time, has collaborated as a soloist with the most important orchestras in the world, including the Vienna, Berlin, New York, London, London, Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies. , the National Orchestra of Washington, Paris, the BBC Orchestra, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Stockholm, La Scala, Milan, Rotterdam, the Staatskapelle, Dresden, the Budapest Festival, the Nazale Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, etc.
In the international firm has participated in the most important international festival, such as Lucerne, Edinburgh, Salzburg, the PROMS of London, the Hollywood Bowl, the Tanglewood etc. In the summer of 2020, as part of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival, he gave a rare recital with works for solo violin by JS Bach at the ancient theater of Epidaurus, being the third Greek musician after Dimitris Mitropoulos and Maria Callas to play in the “sanctuary »This place.
Leonidas Kavakos has been established as one significant presence in its capacity maestro, conducting the most important orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Orchestra, of Budapest, the European Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Filarmonica Teatro La Fenice and the National Symphony Orchestra of Denmark. He currently plays / conducts the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI.
Leonidas Kavakos has received multiple discrimination for his work both in Hellas as well as in abroad. Indicatively, it is mentioned that in 1985, he won the First Prize and the Gold Medal at the “Sibelius” Festival in Helsinki. There, Jean Sibelius’s family entrusted him with the score of the original writing of the Violin Concerto (1903/4) by the leading Finnish composer. In 1988 he won the First Prize of the Paganini Violin Competition (1988) and in 1991 the Pan-European Prize “Leonardo da Vinci”. In 2017 he was awarded the famous Leonie Sonning Prize, which is the highest music award in Denmark. At the same time, he has received numerous praises for his work, both the concert and the record.
Important is the contribution of Leonida Kavakou in hearsay of classical music in provincial cities in Greece that do not have opportunities to listen to classical music, where he has given many concerts. For the last 9 years Leonidas Kavakos has been curating the annual violin and chamber music seminar in Athens, under the auspices of the Academy of Athens, which attracts violinists and ensembles from all over the world and reflects his deep commitment to transmitting musical knowledge and tradition. Part of this tradition is the art of making violins and bows, which L. Kavakos considers a great mystery and to this day a seven-sealed secret. He plays the violin “Willemotte” A. Stradivarius of 1734.
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