Leila Josefowicz

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

(Her Mendelssohn-Glazunov album claims that she was born in 1979.)

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 that he wasn't very good. At five, she started formal lessons with Idel Low. At eight she switched to distinguished violin teacher Robert Lipsett.

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.

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. Mark Grey wrote his San Andreas Suite for her.[1]

Josefowicz was named a 2007 USA Cummings Fellow and awarded a $50,000 grant by United States Artists, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists.

She was formerly married to the conductor Kristjan Järvi, and they have a son, Lukas.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Peter Culshaw, "I needed to have my heart broken" Telegraph, 5 April 2005.

[edit] External Links