Alexandra Conunova

First Prize at the 2012 Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hannover Alexandra Conunova attracted public and critical acclaim when she won First Prize at the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover in the autumn 2012. She was praised by the jury for her vivid tone and her highly virtuoso dramatic art and Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that she “shows with what radiance of tone she is able to endow her music-making. Her interpretations of Bach’s baroque dances are sometimes austere and yet wonderfully cantabile, at other times truly dance-like or – as in the Bourrée – with a high degree of virtuosity.” Her success at the Joachim Competition also earned her a debut CD for Naxos.

Alexandra’s current concerts include a solo recital at the "Septembre Musical" in Montreux, Beethoven Festival in Bonn, Schloss Elmau and others. She will perform at the "Festival de Pâques" in Aix en Provence, the Saarbrücken Symphony Orchestra and with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. She will also tour in Japan and Korea in 2014.

She has won major prizes at competitions such as the 2011 George Enescu Internatonal Violin Competition in Bucharest, the 2011 Deutsche Instrumenten-Musik Fond Competition of the "Deutsche Stiftung Musik Leben" as well as at Tibor Varga (2010), Ion Voicu (2009), and Henri Marteau (2008).

She has established herself as a soloist of a high level. She has performed with orchestras such as the Münchener Kammerorchester, Hofer Symphoniker, Hermitage Orchestra St. Petersburg, NDR Radio Philharmonic, L´Orchestre International de Genève, Belarusian State Philharmonic, Norddeutsche Philharmonic Rostock and Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. She has collaborated with conductors including Christfried Göckeritz, Ilarion Ionescu-Galati, Alexandru Lascae, Hannu Lintu, Juhanni Numminen, Patrick Strub, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Johannes Wildner and Niklas Willen.

Alexandra is also a devoted chamber musician. In 2009, her first chamber music CD of Brahms and Mozart Quintets was released, featuring Heiner Schindler, principal clarinet of the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Conunova Quartet. Alexandra is now a member of the newly formed "Arts Global String Quartet" She is supported by the Arts Global Artistic Foundation which assists, fosters and develops exceptionally accomplished young artists. Alexandra was recently awarded the Julius Bär Prize for the most accomplished artist of the Verbier Festival Academy 2013. This prize includes a solo recital in the official program of the Verbier Festival 2014 or 2015.

Alexandra was born in 1988 in the Republic of Moldova and took up the violin at the age of six. She studied with Professor Krzysztof Wegrzyn at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hannover and has received additional lessons from Boris Kuschnir, Mihaela Martin, Ivry Gitlis and Igor Oistrakh. She plays the Santo-Seraphin Violin, dated 1735, Venezia, kindly loaned by the "Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben" and she lives in Vévey, Switzerland.

01/2014