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Leila Josefowicz
Jane Brown
Elise Jennings
Elliot Samphier
“In short, a fantastic talent”
(Gramophone)
Artist in Residence: Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Leila Josefowicz’s passionate advocacy of contemporary music for the violin is reflected in her diverse programmes and enthusiasm for performing new works. A favourite of living composers, Josefowicz has premiered many concertos, including those by Colin Matthews, Luca Francesconi, John Adams and Esa-Pekka Salonen, all written especially for her.
Josefowicz’s 2024/25 season includes performances of Luca Francesconi’s Duende – The Dark Notes with New York Philharmonic and Susanna Malkki, and the British premiere of Helen Grime’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo at the Aldeburgh Festival. Further engagements include Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, and Houston, San Diego, KBS, Singapore, City of Birmingham, Prague and BBC symphony orchestras. Highlights of recent seasons include appearances with Berliner Philharmoniker, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, London, Oslo, Helsinki and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Chicago, San Francisco, The Cleveland, and The Philadelphia orchestras, where she worked with conductors at the highest level, including Paavo Järvi, Matthias Pintscher, John Storgårds, Cristian Măcelaru, Thomas Søndergård, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Dalia Stasevska, Hannu Lintu and John Adams.
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Josefowicz enjoyed a close working relationship with the late Oliver Knussen, performing various concerti, including his violin concerto, together over 30 times. Other premieres have included Matthias Pintscher’s Assonanza with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, John Adams’ Scheherazade.2 with New York Philharmonic, Luca Francesconi’s Duende – The Dark Notes with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Steven Mackey’s Beautiful Passing with BBC Philharmonic.
Together with John Novacek, with whom she has enjoyed a close collaboration since 1985, Josefowicz has performed recitals at world-renowned venues such as New York’s Zankel Hall and Park Avenue Armory, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, as well as in Reykjavik, Trento, Bilbao and Chicago. This season, their collaboration continues with a return to London’s Wigmore Hall, performing the world premiere of Charlotte Bray’s new commission Mriya. Other chamber collaborations for 2024/25 include Alexei Tartakovsky at Newport Classical, and Paul Watkins, with whom she will premiere a new violin/cello work by Sean Shepherd, at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Chamber Music Northwest.
Josefowicz has released several recordings, notably for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips/Universal and Warner Classics and was featured on Touch Press’s acclaimed iPad app, The Orchestra. Her latest recording, released in 2019, features Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Violin Concerto with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu. She has previously received nominations for Grammy Awards for her recordings of Scheherazade.2 with St Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson, and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.
In recognition of her outstanding achievement and excellence in music, she won the 2018 Avery Fisher Prize and was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2008, joining prominent scientists, writers and musicians who have made unique contributions to contemporary life.
HarrisonParrott represents Leila Josefowicz for worldwide general management.
“Josefowicz shifted seamlessly from the artful, contemplative mode of the Chaconne to the precision-geared fury of 16th notes for the final Toccare movement, the most categorically minimalist section of the work.”
“One could only marvel at Josefowicz’s technical prowess and expressive depth.”
“Josefowicz whipped up into a storm, the violin line — with its determined, tenacious double stops and aggressive glissando skips — acting as lone voice in a cluttered, cosmopolitan landscape.”
“Josefowicz became Adams’ “dream,” easily navigating the concerto’s difficulties, flowing through and floating above the orchestra.”
“Josefowicz brought ferociously raw expression to the opening “Recitative” and a poignant lyricism to a too-moving-for-words central “Aria.” Then she turned the “Gigue” into a gripping dance of life and death.”
“Josefowicz’s fierce commitment to a solo part that never parades virtuosity for its own sake, but also because its challenges always serve a searching and rewardingly complex musical argument.”
“Josefowicz, who played with stunning brilliance, (…) her high-voltage presence being as striking as dance.”
“Josefowicz is magnificent throughout, whether negotiating ferocious technical challenges or playing with gentle lyrical wonder”
“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.”
“This must be one of the 20th century’s most challenging violin and piano works [Zimmermann’s 1950 Sonata], and these two dispatched it with terrific verve.”
“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”
“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.”
“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, 20th-century avant-garde way. Its complexity reflects first and foremost the emotional complexity of the musical content. Josefowicz brought all these layers to life.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Josefowicz, for whom Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto was written, plays with confidence and fizzing energy”