Leonidas Kavakos

Leonidas Kavakos, born in Athens in 1967, is one of the most revered violinists in the world. He swept the major competitions early, winning the Sibelius, Paganini and Naumburg prizes, and made his name with a sensational recording of the original version of the Sibelius Concerto, long withheld from performance, which won Gramophone’s Concerto of the Year. Trained in Greece and with Josef Gingold in the United States, he is admired for the depth, integrity and aristocratic poise of his playing, a sound of great refinement and inner intensity rather than mere flash. He performs and records widely with the world’s leading orchestras, is increasingly active as a conductor, and plays the 1734 ‘Willemotte’ Stradivarius.