By Stephen Sokolouski, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Patricia Kopatchinskaja, photo by Marco Borggreve

• “Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s fiddling is part Gypsy princess, part Stephane Grappelli, part Paganini” – The Australian
• “Her playing is sovereign and animalistic, tender and sassy” – Tagesspiegel (Berlin)
• “If anyone thought classical music was stuffy or corseted, here was the riposte” – Financial Times
• “A fearless violinist who enjoys jolting audiences” – Musical America
• Kopatchinskaja has been praised world-wide for her “irresistible,” “unpredictable,” and “wonderfully imaginative” performances (The Times).

Internationally celebrated violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja has been named the SPCO’s newest Artistic Partner. Kopatchinskaja will begin her tenure in the 2014-15 season where she will be joining current Artistic Partners Roberto Abbado, Edo de Waart, Christian Zacharias and Thomas Zehetmair.

The SPCO will be the first major American orchestra to present Kopatchinskaja in concert. SPCO President Bruce Coppock said, “One of the great joys of our work at the SPCO is to introduce Twin Cities audiences to sparkling and effervescent artists, musicians previously unknown to our patrons, but who will shortly become household names and favorites of SPCO audiences. Kopatchinskaja is the most ravishingly intense and virtuosic musician I have heard in a very long time, and she is sure to be one of those discoveries. She assimilates the earthiness of her Eastern European roots, her rigorous traditional training and a seemingly limitless imagination to create performances that are completely convincing, utterly compelling and downright spectacular.”

Her repertoire spans from Baroque and Classical to a number of new commissions or re-interpretations of modern masterworks. She regularly collaborates with the London Philharmonic and has toured extensively throughout Europe, making appearances in Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg and Stuttgart in the 2013-14 season alone. Her recordings have been well-received by critics, consistently garnering nominations and awards. She was recently nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her “Bartók, Eötvös & Ligeti” CD, a recording already named Gramophone Recording of the Year in 2013.

“As an interpreter I am most interested in communicating the meaning and inner workings of the music I play. Curiosity drives me to explore many different musical frontiers and I’m ready to take the risks that this process entails,” said Kopatchinskaja. On her appointment as an artistic partner with the orchestra, she commented, “I am thrilled and eager to make music with the SPCO and look forward to exploring new worlds and frontiers with these wonderful musicians.”

Kopatchinskaja’s first major project with the SPCO will take place in the fall of 2014, and will focus on interweaving traditional folk music with classical works emanating Eastern European influences. The violinist has said, “Eastern European folklore is my blood, contemporary music is the air I breathe and classical music is the skeleton which holds all this together” (Telegram). In a series of concerts spanning November 20-30, 2014, Kopatchinskaja will make her SPCO debut joined by her parents, Emilia Kopatchinskaja (violin) and Vikor Kopatchinsky (cimbalom), both popular folk musicians who have toured extensively throughout Europe. The program will include traditional Eastern European music along with Ravel’s Tzigane, Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D Minor.

Kyu-Young Kim, the SPCO’s senior director of artistic planning and principal second violinist, looks forward to what this new partnership will bring to the SPCO. “In this age of great young violinists, Patricia Kopatchinskaja really stands out to me as one of the most electrifying artists to emerge in decades. Her music making has an intensity and power that just grabs you and doesn’t let you go. Her affinity for the core Classical and Baroque repertoire, combined with her voracious appetite for contemporary music in wildly varied forms makes her a perfect artistic partner for the SPCO. I know her partnership will be a great adventure for the orchestra and for our audiences.”

Biography: Read more about Patricia Kopatchinskaja Video: Patricia Kopatchinskaja performances Rapsodia: Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Family Ravel: Tzigane Bartók: Sonata for Violin Solo, Third Movement

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 9, Kreutzer Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor Artist’s Website: http://patriciakopatchinskaja.com/