MENTORS' TALENTS GALLERY

Patricia Kopatchinskaja was born in Moldova, the wine-growing country between Roumania and the Ukraine. Both parents are musicians. She studied composition and violin in Vienna and Bern (e.g. with E.Tschugaeva and Igor Ozim). 2000 she won the international Szeryng-Competition in Mexico and in 2002 the prestigious "International Credit Suisse Group Young Artist Award". During the Season 2002/3 she represented Austria in the concert series "Rising Stars" with debuts in New York and many European capitals. 2004 she received the "New Talent - SPP Award" of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and 2006 the "Förderpreis Deutschlandfunk". Her recent tour as guest director and soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra was voted best chamber music production 2007 by the readers of the Australian Limelight magazine and resulted in immediate reinvitation.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja has worked with many leading orchestras (e.g. Philharmonia Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphonic Orchestra, Wiener Kammerorchester, Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg, Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, SWR-Radiosymphonieorchester Stuttgart, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Württembergisches Kammerorchester, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Finnish Radio Symphonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Tschaikowsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and Tokyo Philharmonic) and conductors (e.g. Andreescu, Benzi, Boreyko, de Billy, Eötvös, Fedoseyev, Gazarian, Goodman, Griffiths, Herreweghe, Jansons, Neeme and Paavo Järvi, Kim, Langrée, Litton, Marin, Nelsons, Norrington, Oramo, Penderecki, Petrenko, Pons, Rasilainen, Russell Davies, Schiff, Skrowaczewski). She has appeared in important concert halls, e.g. Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center New York, Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall London, Sidney Opera House, Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein Wien, Mozarteum Salzburg, Tonhalle Zürich, KKL Lucerne, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Suntory Hall Tokyo.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja is regularly invited to significant festivals, to mention but a few: Lucerne Festival, Menuhin-Festival Gstaad, Montreux Jazz Festival, Salzburger Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Wien Modern, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Heidelberger Frühling, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, the Warsaw Beethoven Easter-Festival and the chamber music festivals of Mondsee, Delft, Kuhmo, Oxford, West Cork and Antalya.

Piano partners include Polina Leschenko, Fazil Say, Mihaela Ursuleasa and Henri Sigfridsson. With him and the cellist Sol Gabetta she forms occasionally a piano trio.

Upcoming events include premieres of Fazil Says new violin concerto in Germany, Austria, France, Turkey, Russia and Japan, the premiere of the new violin concerto of Faradj Karajev, two tours and recordings with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées and Philippe Herreweghe (Beethoven), a tour with the SWR-orchestra and Sir Roger Norrington, debuts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the RSO-Orchestra Berlin and the Stuttgart and the Zürich Chamber Orchestras as well as appearances at the Festivals of Salzburg, Schwetzingen, Montpellier, Gstaad. The trio with Fazil Say and the Turkish percussionist Burhan Öcal gave a successful debut at the Jazz-Festival Montreux which will followed by concerts in the great halls at Köln, Paris, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Vienna and Hamburg

The new CD from NAIVE - a recital with Fazil Say - just won the Excellentia Award of the Magazine "Pizzicato" (Luxembourg). Two other CDs by NAIVE will come out this year (new violin concerto of Fazil Say) and in 2009 (recordings of Beethovens works for violin and orchestra with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées and Philippe Herreweghe). Several previous CDs document contemporary works by Johanna Doderer, Nikolai Korndorf, Gerd Kühr, Gerald Resch, Dmitri Smirnov, Boris Yoffe and Otto Zykan.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja composes occasionally herself and she is not afraid of contemporary music. She gave the first performances of the violin concertos written for her by Johanna Doderer, Otto Zykan, Gerald Resch, Gerd Kühr, Jürg Wyttenbach and Fazil Say. Pieces were dedicated to her by Richard Carrick, Violeta Dinescu, Michalis Economou, Ludwig Nussbichler, Ivan Sokolov, Boris Yoffe and many others. She also likes to improvise solo or with others (e.g. Barry Guy, Burhan Öçal or Mahmoud Turkmani). Patricia Kopatchinskaja plays a violin by Pressenda from 1834, according to the The STRAD magazine "a colourful-sounding instrument, whose viola-like quality lends her playing exceptional tonal interest". Acting as good-will ambassador for the charity Terre des Hommes, Patricia Kopatchinskaja especially supports projects for children in Moldova.