Leila Josefowicz

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Leila Josefowicz

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1977|10|20}}

| birth_place = Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

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| genre = Classical

| occupations = Musician

| instruments = Violin

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| website = {{URL|www.leilajosefowicz.com/}}

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Leila Bronia Josefowicz ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|iː|l|ə|_|dʒ|oʊ|ˈ|s|ɛ|f|ə|w|ɪ|t|s}} {{Respell|LEE|lə|_|joh|SEF|ə|witz}};{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGNhY5rkqiw |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/HGNhY5rkqiw| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=Leila Josefowicz on Composer Oliver Knussen|website=YouTube |accessdate=23 July 2020}}{{cbignore}} born October 20, 1977) is an American-Canadian classical violinist.

Biography

Josefowicz was born in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. When she was a young child her family moved to Los Angeles, California, where she started studying violin at the age of three and a half using the Suzuki method. Her father, physicist Jack Josefowicz, and mother, biologist Wendy Josefowicz, learned with her. At age five she started formal lessons with Idel Low. At seven she began studies with the distinguished violin teacher Robert Lipsett at The Colburn School. Leila's parents, valuing a well-rounded education, believed that both she and her brother Steven should stay in the public school system, and Leila attended public middle and high school despite a very full schedule of music activities.{{cite news|last1=Palmer|first1=Andrew|title=A Conversation with Violinist Leila Josefowicz|url=http://www.allthingsstrings.com/News/Interviews-Profiles/A-Conversation-with-Violinist-Leila-Josefowicz|accessdate=2 April 2015|work=All Things Strings|date=May–June 2000}}

When Leila was 13 the Josefowiczes moved to Philadelphia so she could attend the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Jaime Laredo, Jascha Brodsky, Felix Galimir and Joseph Gingold. Leila also attended the Julia R. Masterman School in Philadelphia while at Curtis, completing a bachelor of music degree and her high school diploma in the same year.

Career

While still in her teens, Josefowicz played with symphony orchestras in Europe, Asia and North America, including the major orchestras of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Boston, Montreal, and Toronto.

Josefowicz made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1994 performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.{{cite web|url=http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/leila-josefowicz |title=About the performer: Leila Josefowicz|publisher= Los Angeles Philharmonic }}{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3639854/I-needed-to-have-my-heart-broken.html|title=I needed to have my heart broken|work=The Telegraph|author=Peter Culshaw|date= 5 April 2005}} The same year, she signed an exclusive recording contract with Philips Classics, recording the Tchaikovsky and Sibelius concertos. Other recordings followed on Warner Classics,{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/leila-josefowicz-dnfgp0p3l2h|title=Leila Josefowicz: Shostakovich|work=The Times|date=June 2, 2006}} Nonesuch Records, and Deutsche Grammophon{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/albumreviews/article3572820.ece|title=Leila Josefowicz: Salonen Violin Concerto|work=The Times|date=October 20, 2012}} that include masterworks for solo violin, recital repertoire and the concertos of Romantic and modern composers.

Josefowicz has kept a busy international schedule as a soloist, performing regularly around the world, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to traditional masterworks, she has performed contemporary compositions with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She has also made recent appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, and the Czech Philharmonic.

Josefowicz is acclaimed for championing new compositions,{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} including works by John Adams, Oliver Knussen, Thomas Adès, and Luca Francesconi. In 2008–09 she performed the world premiere of the violin concerto written for her by Esa-Pekka Salonen, for which he won the Grawemeyer Prize, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Steven Mackey wrote a violin concerto for her that had its world premiere with the St. Louis Symphony; and Colin Matthews wrote a concerto for her that had its world premiere with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In 2014 she gave the world premiere of the concerto Duende written for her by Francesconi, for which he won the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award. In 2015 she gave the world premiere of the concerto Scheherazade.2, written for her by John Adams, with the New York Philharmonic.{{cite news|url=http://theclassicalreview.com/2015/03/aided-by-josefowiczs-fire-adams-returns-to-form-with-scheherazade-2/|title=Aided by Josefowicz's fire, Adams returns to form with "Scheherazade.2"|work=The Classical review|date=March 29, 2015}}

Josefowicz received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1994.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=AVERY FISHER CAREER GRANTS|url=http://www.aboutlincolncenter.org/programs/program-avery-fisher-artist-program/the-avery-fisher-career-grants|access-date=2020-12-27|website=www.aboutlincolncenter.org}} In 2007 she was named a USA Cummings Fellow, United States Artists.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}} For her advocacy of new contemporary works for the violin, Josefowicz was named a 2008 MacArthur Fellow.{{cite news|url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/801/|title=Leila Josefowicz: Violinist, Class of 2008|work=MacArthur Foundation|date=January 27, 2008}} In 2018 she was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize.{{Cite web|title=The Avery Fisher Prize {{!}} Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts|url=http://www.aboutlincolncenter.org/programs/program-avery-fisher-artist-program/the-avery-fisher-prize|access-date=2020-12-27|website=www.aboutlincolncenter.org}}

Josefowicz was married to the conductor Kristjan Järvi, and they have a son.Stuart Jeffries. [https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/jul/22/artsfeatures 'I'm an artist, not a pin-up', in The Guardian, 22 Jul 2002]

References

External links

{{external media

|video1=[https://www.npr.org/artists/94928883/leila-josefowicz Leila Josefowicz], NPR

}}

[http://www.leilajosefowicz.com/ Leila Josefowicz – The Official Website]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20071121104456/http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/USADonors/USANationalLeadershipCommittee/Cummings/index.cfm Cummings Foundation Fellows 2007]
[http://www.unitedstatesartists.org United States Artists Arts Advocacy Organization.]
[http://violinstar.edublogs.org/files/2010/12/Leila-Josefowicz-1yk9r7q.jpg photo link]

Category:1977 births

Category:American women violinists

Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States

Category:Canadian classical violinists

Category:Canadian people of English descent

Category:Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent

Category:Jewish Canadian musicians

Category:Living people

Category:Musicians from Mississauga

Category:Musicians from Los Angeles

Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni

Category:MacArthur Fellows