Occupation(s) Musician Role Film actor Instruments Violin, piano | Years active 1993–present Movies The Red Violin Name Christoph Koncz | |
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Education University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna Albums The 20th-century Concerto Grosso Similar People Francois Girard, Neville Marriner, Erwin Schulhoff, Ernst Krenek, Vincent d'Indy | ||
Koncz Duo plays Romanian Folk Dances by Béla Bartók
Christoph Koncz (born September 3, 1987 in Konstanz) is an Austrian-Hungarian classical musician. He performs internationally as a violin soloist, conductor, chamber musician and principal of the Vienna Philharmonic. At the age of just nine, he received worldwide acclaim for starring as child prodigy Kaspar Weiss in the Canadian feature film The Red Violin, which won the 1999 Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Contents
- Koncz Duo plays Romanian Folk Dances by Bla Bartk
- Mozart Violin Concerto by Christoph and Stephan Koncz
- Biography
- References
Mozart Violin Concerto by Christoph and Stephan Koncz
Biography
Born 1987 in Konstanz into an Austrian-Hungarian family of musicians, Christoph Koncz received his first violin lesson at the age of four and entered the Vienna University of Music only two years later, studying with Eugenia Polatschek. He went on to study violin with Josef Hell, Igor Ozim and Boris Kuschnir at the Music Universities of Vienna, Salzburg and Graz as well as conducting with Mark Stringer in Vienna. Master classes with Daniel Barenboim and Daniel Harding further enriched his musical education. In 2008, at the age of twenty, Christoph Koncz was appointed principal second violin of the Vienna Philharmonic.
He made his North American debut as a soloist aged twelve with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit, leading to collaborations with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Marc Minkowski. Further engagements have taken him to numerous countries across Europe and to the Middle East, Asia and Australia as well as North and South America.
Much in demand as a chamber musician, Christoph Koncz's musical partners include Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, Renaud Capuçon, Antoine Tamestit, Kim Kashkashian, Gautier Capuçon and Rudolf Buchbinder. He also performs frequently with his brother Stephan Koncz, a sought-after cellist and member of the Berlin Philharmonic. They are both recipients of the European Music Prize for Youth.
Following his recording of works by Heise and Gade and many radio and TV broadcasts, Christoph Koncz’s world premiere recording of Ernst Krenek’s Concertino (Op. 27) with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner was published on Chandos Records in 2013. Furthermore, Deutsche Grammophon released an album with Johannes Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet, recorded by Christoph Koncz together with Leonidas Kavakos, Antoine Tamestit, Stephan Koncz and Andreas Ottensamer in 2015.
Christoph Koncz made his conducting debut at the Mozartwoche Salzburg festival in January 2013 and has been returning there regularly ever since. In May 2014 he took the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra on a tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland with 14 performances at such prestigious venues as the Berlin, Cologne and Munich Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus and KKL Lucerne. He conducted works by Mozart at the 2014 Salzburg Festival. In 2017, Christoph Koncz will make his US conducting debut with the Memphis Symphony and return to the Berlin Philharmonie. He will also continue his collaboration with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra.
Christoph Koncz plays a 1762 Giuseppe Gagliano violin courtesy of the Vienna Philharmonic.