Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the Karajan Academy

The violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja thrills audiences with her boundless enthusiasm, her passionate temperament and her technical brilliance, even in the most difficult and unwieldy works. The musician has attracted attention with the Berliner Philharmoniker during the past few years with challenging violin concertos by Peter Eötvös, György Ligeti and Arnold Schoenberg. Contemporary music allows her a glimpse into the future: “It is obvious that only in the newest works does actual development take place and the future begin, this decisive step into the unknown. That is what is most fascinating. In comparison, the preoccupation with the long familiar is almost banal.” In other words, no fear of the unknown! Patricia Kopatchinskaja already proved that as a 13-year-old, when she and her family left their homeland of Moldavia and emigrated to Vienna. “The first stop was a refugee camp,” she recalls. “That was not a traumatic experience for me, though, but rather like a ticket to a new world.” At 17, she began her studies at the University of Music in Vienna, where she met Kirill Petrenko, with whom she has enjoyed a friendship since then. From Vienna she transferred to the University of the Arts in Bern, where she completed her studies with Igor Ozim. She then launched her international career, which is unique in many respects. She is not only a soloist, but a composer and conductor as well, and also – as she emphasizes – “a human being, member of a family and citizen of the world. That should not be irrelevant to us. Only after those things do we have some profession or other”. This point of view also defines her artistic work. For example, in her project Les Adieux with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, she calls attention to the extinction of species. Since her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in September 2014 with Peter Eötvösʼs violin concerto DoReMi, a close collaboration with the orchestra has developed. “This orchestra has a quality that is unparalleled, both as a whole and each individual member. It is a great privilege to be able to play with them,” says Patricia Kopatchinskaja. This season she is Artist in Residence with the Berliner Philharmoniker and can display all the facets of her artistic personality. She has already performed Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Concerto funebre under Kirill Petrenko. During today’s concert, which spans the period from the Baroque to contemporary music, she appears both as violinist and conductor. In everything she does on the concert platform, one thing is particularly important to her: to electrify her public. “I want to experience things with my audience. I want to take paths that I have not yet taken myself. And I hope that as many as possible will come with me.”