Alissa Margulis

The Guardian describes Alissa Margulis’ playing as “exceptional“, Ivry Gitlis praises it as “a revelation” and Martha Argerich calls her a “strong musical personality”.  Appreciated for her expressive and very emotional performances, Alissa Margulis regularly plays in important concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmony, the Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Tchaikovsky Hall Moscow, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Cologne Philharmony, the Vienna Musikverein, Sumida Triphony Hall Tokyo, the Sage Gateshead, the Tonhalle Zurich and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall.

Born in Germany into a family of Russian musicians, Alissa Margulis studied in Cologne with Zakhar Bron, in Brussels with Augustin Dumay and in Vienna with Pavel Vernikov. She won numerous prizes at international violin competitions and was awarded with the “Pro Europa” prize of the European Arts Foundation which was presented to her by Daniel Barenboim in Berlin.

She made her first public appearance at the age of seven with the Budapest Soloists and has performed since then with numerous orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, New Russia Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Bilkent Orchestra Ankara, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Belgian National Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Kiev, Skopje, Ljubljana, Minsk and Novosibirsk, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Moscow Soloists, and the Kremerata Baltica, amongst many others.

Alissa Margulis worked together with famous conductors: Ivor Bolton, Jacques Mercier, Arnold Katz, Jacek Kaspszyk, Dmitry Liss, Jaap van Zweden, Enrique Mazzola, Daniel Raiskin, Fabrice Bollon, Stefan Vladar, François-Xavier Roth, Lars Vogt, Howard Griffiths, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Hubert Soudant, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Christian Arming, Augustin Dumay, Mikko Franck and Gerd Albrecht to name just a few of them.

Besides her solo career Alissa Margulis is an enthusiastic chamber music player and collaborates with artists such as Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, David Geringas, Ivry Gitlis, Gidon Kremer, Bruno Giuranna, Mischa Maisky, Gabriela Montero, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Liana Issakadze, Alexandre Tharaud, Stephen Kovacevich, Alexander Lonquich, Polina Leschenko, Paul Badura-Skoda and Lars Vogt.

She further appeared at various Festivals: at the Enescu Festival Bucharest, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, in Davos, Tours, Stravanger Festival, at the Mozartwoche Salzburg, “Spannungen”-Festival in Heimbach, “Progetto” Martha Argerich Festival in Lugano, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Sotshi Winter Arts Festival and Verbier Festival.

Her discography includes more than a dozen CDs at labels such as EMI Classics, Oehms, Novalis, Avanti Classic and CAvi. Notably two of the six EMI Classics releases of the „Martha Argerich and Friends“ series received a GRAMMY nomination, several others won the Diapason d'or. She recorded repertoire by Mozart, Shostakovich, Enescu, Beethoven, Messiaen and others as well as the complete music for violin and piano by Franz Liszt. She recorded Piazzolla’s seasons and took part in an all Klezmer recording alongside musicians such as Myriam Fuks, Roby Lakatos, Evgeny Kissin, Polina Leschenko and Mischa Maisky. Alissa Margulis will be featured in another live recording of chamber music performed at the Progetto Martha Argerich, a 2016 release by Warner Classics.

The season 2015/2016  she played concerts in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Russia, Luxembourg, Lebanon, South Africa, Aruba, Malta, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the USA, Italy, France at venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Tchaikovsky Hall Moscow and the Verbier Festival, among many others.