Leonidas Kavakos

Leonidas Kavakos has earned broad recognition both as a violinist and as a conductor, while maintaining an active commitment to chamber music.

Born in Athens on October 30, 1967, into a musical household, he began violin lessons at the age of five. Demonstrating early promise, he entered the Hellenic Conservatory for training with Stelios Kafantaris. An Onassis Foundation scholarship then supported his studies at Indiana University in the United States under Josef Gingold. He also counts pianist Ferenc Rados among his mentors and periodically continues lessons with him.

Kavakos gave his first Athens recital in 1984 and achieved an early breakthrough the following year by winning the International Sibelius Competition. Further major prizes followed, opening the way to an international touring career. He attracted particular attention in 1990 with a recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, which presented the world premiere of the original 1904 version alongside the familiar 1905 revision; the release received Gramophone magazine’s Concerto of the Year Award.

His U.S. debut took place in 1996, and he has since appeared there nearly every year. Frequent visits to Japan have included many performances with the English Chamber Orchestra.

An expanding interest in conducting brought an appointment as principal guest artist of the Camerata Salzburg in 2001, where he regularly appeared as both soloist and conductor. He succeeded Roger Norrington as artistic director in 2007 but resigned in 2009 after growing dissatisfied with management changes at the orchestra. Conducting engagements have continued, among them a 2019 performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major, K. 364, with the Verbier Festival Orchestra and violist Antoine Tamestit, in which Kavakos played the violin part himself.

Chamber music occupies a central place in his schedule; he created his own festival in Athens that also offers master classes. He has toured and recorded with pianist Emanuel Ax and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, frequently presenting Beethoven’s trios. His recordings have appeared on BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, and, most recently, Sony Classical; the 2022 release Beethoven for Three, containing trio arrangements of Beethoven symphonies, featured Ax and Ma.

Although numerous concerts planned for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020 were canceled because of pandemic restrictions, he performed major Beethoven piano-trio programs with Ax and Ma in 2022.