Vesko Eshkenazy

“Vesko Eschkenazy is a brilliant violinist” – remarks the De Telegraaf in November 2000, after his performance of Szymanovski’s Violin Concerto No 1 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Eschkenazy has been its concertmaster since the beginning of the 1999/2000 season.

Born in Bulgaria in 1970 into a family of musicians, Eschkenazy became concertmaster of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 11. He graduated from the L Pipkov National Music School in Sofia and the P Vladiguerov State Music Academy. Later he completed a Masters Degree and acquired a Solo Recital Diploma from the Guildhall School of Music (London) in 1992 under the tutelage of Prof. Ifra Neaman. He is a laureate of the International Violin Competitions Wieniawski (Poznań, Poland), Carl Flesch (London) and China International Competition (Beijing).

He has performed extensively in Europe, USA, India, and China and has taken part in such festivals as Midem in Cannes, Montpellier and Atlantic– France, the Music Festivals in Nantes and Rheims. Eschkenazy has performed as soloist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, to name a few. He has taken part in concerts alongside Montserrat Caballe, Placido Domingo, Alexis Weissenberg, Yuri Bashmet, and Mstislav Rostropovich and has played under the direction of Mariss Jansons, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis, Carlo-Maria Giulini, Seiji Ozawa, and Emil Tchakarov.

Recent major performances include Mozart’s Violin Concerto in A major under Mariss Jansons and Dvorak’s Violin Concerto under Sir Colin Davis, both with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra both at home and on tour.

Vesko Eschkenazy records for the Dutch Pentatone Classics CD label. His recording with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra of violin concertos by Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schubert received critical acclaim.

Eschkenazy is also an active chamber musician. In 1995, he toured Europe with the pianist Ludmil Angelov, presenting the complete Mozart sonatas for violin and piano in four successive evening cycles. Besides, Eschkenazy has been a member of the world famous Dutch piano trio Osiris since 2005/06 season, with which Eschkenazy performs about 50 concerts each season throughout America and Europe.

Since the summer of 2000 Vesko Eschkenazy has been playing a Guarneri del Gesù violin from 1738, the property of an anonymous sponsor in The Netherlands.