Leila Josefowicz

Violin

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“In short, a fantastic talent”
(Gramophone)

An outstanding champion of contemporary music, Leila Josefowicz is the chosen interpreter of several leading composers including the late Oliver Knussen, John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Mackey, Matthias Pintscher and Luca Francesconi.

Highlights of Josefowicz’s 2018/19 season include concerts with the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Houston and St. Louis symphonys, and the Toronto and Baltimore symphony orchestras; working with conductors at the highest level including Jaap van Zweden, Christoph Eschenbach and David Robertson.

Alongside pianist John Novacek, with whom Josefowicz has enjoyed a close collaboration since 1985, she has performed recitals at world-renowned venues such as New York’s Zankel Hall and Washington’s Kennedy Center, as well as Reykjavik, Leeds, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Halifax (Nova Scotia). This season, she appears at Madrid’s Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical, Ithaca and Eastman schools of music, the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, and returns to London’s Wigmore Hall.

Recent highlights include engagements with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, and Boston and Finnish Radio symphony orchestras. In summer 2017, Josefowicz appeared at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and London’s Royal Albert Hall at the BBC Proms with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

Leila Josefowicz - Knussen: Violin Concerto (extract) © Deutsche Grammophon

“Leila Josefowicz is just the right kind of violinist: tough, uncompromising, always ready to do battle with the band and to soar, exhilaratingly, above it.”

(Andrew McGregor, Radio 3 Record Review)

“Ms. Josefowicz seized on every phrase of the violin part to bring out its character and musical content. She made the most of each moment, playing with brightness, mystery, eagerness”

(Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, October 2018)

“From breathless pyrotechnic explosions to the episodes of expressive (but still steely) lyricism, [Leila Josefowicz] brought every corner of the work to light like a majestic tragedian.”

(San Francisco Chronicle, February 2017)

“Josefowicz’s musicianship is one of a kind — completely in tune with the shifting emotional landscape of Adams’ harmonic musical language, which is complex, but not in the over-intellectualized, 20^th-century avant-garde way. Its complexity reflects first and foremost the emotional complexity of the musical content. Josefowicz brought all these layers to life.”

(Thomas May, The Seattle Times, March 2016)

“Duende: The Dark Notes revealed itself to be a richly imagined score in this performance by the violinist Leila Josefowicz under the baton of Susanna Mälkki. Playing with wonderful virtuosity, Josefowicz commanded a part that scarcely rests and forms an almost constant aspect of the soundscape.”

(John Allison, The Daily Telegraph, July 2015)

“What would a Scheherazade for our own time be like? This work offers John Adams’ answer in the portrait of a beautiful, empowered and fearless woman confronting oppression. He described the brilliant Leila Josefowicz, for whom he wrote this work in a commission from the New York Philharmonic, as the embodiment of his heroine as a fearless and empowered artist. Long an Adams champion, Ms Josefowicz gave a dazzling and inspired performance.”

(Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, March 2015)

“Josefowicz, for whom Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto was written, plays with confidence and fizzing energy”

(Andrew Morris, International Record Review, January 2013)