Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (born 1977 in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, former Soviet Union) is a Moldovan-Austrian violinist.

Life

Kopatchinskaja comes from a family of musicians,^[1] her mother Emilia is also a violinist, her father Viktor plays the cimbalom. While her parents were on concert tour through the former Eastern Block, Patricia grew up with her grandparents in a Moldovan village.^[2] She started playing the violin at six years old.^[3]

In 1989 the family emigrated to Vienna. Kopatchinskaja studied musical composition and violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. At the age of 21 she changed to Igor Ozim at the Musikhochschule in Bern, Switzerland.^[4] In 2000 she got her diploma with highest marks.^[5]

Kopatchinskaja lives in Bern, Switzerland, where she is married and has a daughter.^[6]

Violinist

In the view of the Jury of the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award "Patricia Kopatchinskaja is not only one of the most imaginative violinists around today, she is also a musician capable of galvanising colleagues and mesmerising audiences. Whether she is digging into the dark emotions of 20th-century masterpieces or championing new works she is as irresistible as a force of nature: passionate, challenging and totally original in her approach."^[7]

As soloist she appeared with most of the leading orchestras of Europe, Russia and Japan, including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London and Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony.

Kopatchinskaja worked with many of todays leading conductors and there is a long term collaboration with the following conductors: Vladimir Ashkenazy, Teodor Currentzis, Peter Eötvös, Philippe Herreweghe, Heinz Holliger, Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Roger Norrington, Sakari Oramo and Andres Orozco-Estrada.

Festivals

She participated in many festivals, e.g. the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, Lockenhaus-Festival, Menuhin-Festival Gstaad, Mostly Mozart Festival,^[8] Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Rheingau Musik Festival, Salzburger Festspiele, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele, The Rest is Noise-Festival, London and Wiener Festwochen.^[9]

Directing

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, besides playing solo, also directs chamber orchestras, e.g. the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Camerata Bern, Britten Sinfonia, Staatskapelle Berlin, and in the United States, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Chamber Music

Chamber music partners were the pianists Fazil Say, Markus Hinterhäuser, Polina Leschenko, Olli Mustonen, the cellists Sol Gabetta and Pieter Wispelwey, the singer Anu Komsi and the clarinetist Reto Bieri. With Pekka Kuusisto, Lilli Maijala und Pieter Wispelwey she has formed a string quartet "quartet-lab" since 2012.^[10]

Repertoire

Kopatchinskaja's repertoire ranges from baroque and classical (sometimes played on historical instruments) to a number of new commissions or re-interpretations of modern masterworks. During her compository studies in Vienna she was especially interested in the Second Viennese School: Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg. Among her preferred composers are György Kurtág, György Ligeti, Tigran Mansurian and Galina Ustwolskaja. Occasionally she composes herself.^[11]

First performances

Patricia Kopatchinskaja gave first performances of numerous works, e.g.:

• 2004/5 seven first performances, among them violin concertos dedicated to her by Johanna Doderer and Otto Zykan
• 2005/6 first performances of violin concertos dedicated to her by Gerald Resch and Gerd Kühr with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
• 2007/8 first performances of violin concertos dedicated to her by Jürg Wyttenbach and the Turkish composer/pianist Fazil Say
• 2009 first performance of the violin concerto dedicated to her by Faradj Karajew
• 2011 first performance of violin concertos dedicated to her by Maurizio Sotelo and Helmut Oehring ("Four seasons") as well as the work "Oh whispering suns" for double choir, solo violin and cymbal by Vanessa Lann
• 2012 first performance of the Romance for violin and strings dedicated to her by Tigran Mansurian with Amsterdam Sinfonietta.
• 2014 first performance of her own violin concerto "Hortus animae" with Camerata Bern.^[12]
• 2015 (August) first performance of «Dialogue», concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra by Mark-Anthony Turnage (with Sol Gabetta and Gstaad Festival Orchestra).
• 2015 (November) first performance of the violin concerto written for her by the American composer Michael Hersch with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Moreover Richard Carrick, Violeta Dinescu, Michalis Economou, Heinz Holliger, Ludwig Nussbichler, Jorge Sanchez-Chiong, Ivan Sokolov, Boris Yoffe have written works for her.

Violin

Patricia Kopatchinskaja plays a violin built by Giovanni Francesco Pressenda (Turin) in 1834.^[13] According to the British music magazine The Strad this is "a colourful sounding instrument whose viola-like quality gives her play an exceptional tonal interest". For period instrument ensembles she uses a violin built by Ferdinando Gagliano (Naples) about 1780.^[14]

Awards

• 2000: 1. prize in the International Henryk Szeryng Competition in Mexico^[15]
• 2002: Credit SuisseYoung Artist Award^[16]
• 2004: New Talent – SPP Award of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
• 2006: Deutschlandfunk-award of the Bremer Musikfest ^[17]
• 2008: Award of the music commission Kanton Bern, Switzerland
• 2009: ECHO in the category chamber music for the CD recorded with Fazil Say(works by Beethoven, Ravel, Bártok & Say)
• 2010: BBC-Music-Magazine award (orchestral category) for the CD recorded with Philippe Herreweghe and the Orchestre des Champs Elysees: Collected works for violin and orchestra by Beethoven
• 2011: "Golden Bow"-award of the Meiringen music festival, Switzerland
• 2012: Praetorius music award of the county Niedersachsen, Germany in the category "musical innovation"
• 2013: ECHO in the category concert recording of the year (20th/21st century/violin) for the double-CD with violin concertos by Bartók, Ligeti and Eötvös, recorded with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt respectively Ensemble Modern under Peter Eötvös (Naive)
• 2013: Gramophone Award "Recording of the year" and Grammy-nomination, both for the double-CD with violin concertos by Bartók, Ligeti and Eötvös, recorded with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt respectively Ensemble Modern under Peter Eötvös (Naive)
• 2014: International Classical Music Awards (Category Concerto) for the double CD with violin concertos by Bartók, Ligeti and Eötvös
• 2014: Prix Caecilia (Belgium) for the CD with violin concertos by Stravinsky and Prokofjev recorded with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski (Naive)
• 2014: Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards 2013 (Category instrumentalist)^[18]

Discography

References

1. ↑ biography of the parents on the former homepage of Patricia Kopatchinskaja www.patkop.ch (archived in Internet Archive 17 May 2010), checked 19 March 2014.
2. ↑ "Patricia Kopatchinskaja: Ich kenne Dich, ich habe Dich spielen gehört". Documentary film, 2012. (Director: Béla Batthyany)
3. ↑ Internet source: http://www.musikverein.at/monatszeitung/monatszeitungvoll.php?idx=300
4. ↑ http://www.classicpoint.ch/interviews/122-patricia-kopatchinskaja
5. ↑ http://db.musicaustria.at/node/69886
6. ↑ Internet source: http://www.classicpoint.ch/interviews/122-patricia-kopatchinskaja
7. ↑ Internet source: http://rpsmusicawards.com/index/2013-instrumentalist
8. ↑ http://bachtrack.com/de_DE/review-kopatchinskaja-martin-bach-mostly-mozart-festival-august-2014
9. ↑ http://www.festwochen.at/programmdetails/hommage-an-galina-ustwolskaja/
10. ↑ Internet source: http://www.harrisonparrott.com/artist/profile/quartet-lab
11. ↑ Internet source: http://www.classicpoint.ch/interviews/122-patricia-kopatchinskaja
12. ↑ Internet source: http://www.derbund.ch/agenda/musik/Der-Ton-der-durch-die-Musik-wandelt/story/22148333
13. ↑ See Biography on website of her agency: http://www.harrisonparrott.com/artist/profile/patricia-kopatchinskaja
14. ↑ Personal communication by the artist
15. ↑ http://db.musicaustria.at/node/69886
16. ↑ http://db.musicaustria.at/node/69886
17. ↑ Violinistin Kopatchinskaja erhält "Förderpreis" auf radiobremen.de (archived in Internet Archive on 17th of mai 2010), checked on 19th of march 2014.
18. ↑ Internet source: http://rpsmusicawards.com/index/2013-instrumentalist

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

• Patricia Kopatchinskaja at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• Interview on the Swiss Classic Website www.Classicpoint.ch
• Wild Child of Classical Violin, by Ivan Hewett in The Daily Telegraph UK (14.August 2014)