Leila Josefowicz

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Leila Bronia Josefowicz (born October 20, 1977 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a classical violinist.

Born into a Polish-English family, while a young child her family moved to Los Angeles, California where she started studying violin at the age of three and a half using the Suzuki method. Her father, physicist Jack Josefowicz, learned with her until out of the mouths of babes she told him he wasn't very good. At five she started formal lessons with Idel Low. At eight she switched to Robert Lipsett, California's top violin teacher.

At age 13 her family moved to Philadelphia so she could attend the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Jaime Laredo, Joseph Gingold, Felix Galimir, and Jascha Brodsky.

Still in her teens, she played with the symphonic orchestras of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Montreal and Toronto.

Josefowicz made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1994 performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

The same year she signed an exclusive recording contract with Philips Classics, recording the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius concertos.

She has kept a busy schedule as a soloist, performing throughout North America, Europe, Japan, China, and Australia. She has a strong interest in jazz, improvisation, and new music, and has been working a great deal of material by John Coolidge Adams into her repertoire.

The 1708 "Ruby" Stradivarius was loaned to her by the Stradivari Society in 1993-94. She more recently played on the 1739 "Ebersolt" Guarnerius del Gesù loaned by Dr. Herbert Axelrod. On her 1995 album of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius concertos she plays both of these violins.

Recently, she has taken to performing the work of John Coolidge Adams.

She was once married to conductor Kristjan Järvi, and they have a son named Lucas.

[edit] Trivia

• Her Mendelsohhn-Glazunov album claims that she was born in 1979.