World violin star Leila Josefowicz will perform in Lithuania Culture

The concert will take place in the newly equipped LVSO concert hall in Vilnius. The Los Angeles Times critic wrote regarding Leila Josefowicz that while she was playing, “every now and then it’s worth glancing at the violinist’s feet to see if they’re off the ground.” And when she “drops to the ground, she transforms into a stormy rocker” whose “virtuosity floats in waves of joyous energy.”

Leila Josefowicz was born in Canada to a family of European immigrants, but moved with her parents to Los Angeles, USA in her early childhood. She was considered a child prodigy, she started learning the violin from the age of three. At thirteen, Leila began attending and later graduated from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Jaime Laredo and Jasch Brodsky.

At the age of sixteen, she already played in New York’s “Carnegie Hall” with the famous orchestra “Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields” and the famous conductor Sir Neville Marriner. In the same year, she signed an exclusive contract with Philips Classics to record the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius violin concertos, followed by contracts with Warner Classics, Nonesuch Records and Deutsche Grammophon.

At the age of twenty, Leila began to perform with the most famous symphony orchestras in the United States, and her concert calendar soon became very intense, covering North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and even New Zealand.

Leila has been invited to perform both classic violin masterpieces and newly created works by the world’s best orchestras: the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and many other great orchestras.

Leila Josefowicz is a passionate interpreter of modern classics, and this passion is reflected in her concert programs, where her enthusiasm to present something new to the audience is evident every time. Leila emphasizes the importance of performance quality and evocativeness: in her opinion, every performance should be special.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the most famous composers of our time, such as John Adams, Thomas Adès, Luca Francesconi and many others, write their new works for Leila. In 2008-2009, she performed the world premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s violin concerto, specially composed for her, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, for which the author won the prestigious Grawemeyer Prize.

in 2014 Leila performed the world premiere of Luca Francesconi’s violin concerto “Duende” composed for her, for which the composer won The Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award. in 2015 she performed the world premiere of Scheherazade.2, John Adams’ dramatic symphony composed especially for her, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Leila Josefowicz’s current calendar includes performances with the famous Berliner Philharmoniker Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle and Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestras, London, Dresden, Oslo, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras, Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie ” orchestra, famous US symphony orchestras and such world-famous conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Paavo Järvi, Susanna Mälkki, Louis Langrée, Hann Lint, John Storgårds, and with John Adams himself.

This season, Leila accepted the invitation of the famous Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik and the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra to become a resident artist, where she performed under the direction of Daniel Bjarnason and Eva Ollikainen, and gave a solo recital.

in 2022 with the famous orchestra “Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields’ Leila Josefowicz recorded the CD “Bohemian Rhapsodies” featuring popular violin concert pieces by Pablo de Sarasate, Camille Saint-Saëns, Henryk Wieniawski, Jules Massenet, Maurice Ravel, Ernest Chausson.

Leila has also been nominated for the Grammy Award several times: her interpretation of John Adams’ Dramatic Symphony for Violin and Orchestra “Scheherazade.2” recording, released by Warner Bros UK, and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with Deutsche Grammophon received excellent reviews. Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer.

Leila has won various prizes and other awards, and in 2018 in recognition of her outstanding contributions to culture and professional excellence, she was awarded the highly prestigious Avery Fisher Prize.