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Ivan Ženatý

Biography

Ivan Ženatý is appearing repeatedly as a guest artist with all of the orchestras in his homeland (primarily with the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra) as well as with famed ensembles internationally (BBC Symphony Orchestra of London, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Berliner Symphoniker, Orchestra Nacional de Madrid and others). Also attracting much attention are his solo and chamber music projects (the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo on one evening or the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas from recent seasons). With his exceptional wealth of repertoire (including over fifty violin concertos from Bach, Vivaldi, through Beethoven, the complete works of Mozart and all of the great Romantic works to Stravinsky, Britten, Schnittke and Henze) Ivan Zenaty reaches a broad public without abandoning the world of classical music for even a moment. Besides the technical perfection one would expect, he is also appreciated for his taste and style and for his captivatingly beautiful tone. The violinist began his professional career with his participation in the finale of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1982, followed by his debut with the Czech Philharmonic and Libor Pesek (1983) and his victory at the Prague Spring Competition (1987). He earned the title of laureate at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Young Performers (1989). in 1990 Mr. Zenaty made his debut in London, in 1991 at the Berliner Philharmonie and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, in 1994 in Tokyo and in 1996 in New York and Buenos Aires. He has collaborated with Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Serge Baudo, Valery Gergiev, Andrey Boreyko, Neville Marriner and other important musical figures of his era. The musicianship of Ivan Ženatý has been influenced the most by his personal encounters with Nathan Milstein, Ruggiero Ricci and Andre Gertler, and a major change to his musical thinking was initiated by Prof. Bezrodny at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. of the greatest importance, however, have been his private lessons with Josef Suk and many subsequent years of their collaboration, climaxing with performances at the Würzburger Mozart-Festspiele and the Prague Spring Festival and with a recording of the complete works of W. A. Mozart. Ivan Ženatý's recordings have always aroused the enthusiastic acclaim of listeners and music critics. Throughout the period of is artistic activity, there has been an apparent concentration on the complete works of such great composers as Telemann, Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schulhoff, Dvorak and Grieg recorded for Dorian Recordings in New York. His new complete Dvorak recording ) has attracted extraordinary attention, as has his recording of both violin concertos by J. B. Foerster with the BBC SO London and its music director Jiří Bělohlávek. Thanks to the Harmony Foundation of New York, Ivan Ženatý plays on a rare Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu violin made in 1740. A natural counterbalance to Ivan Ženatý 's concert and recording activities is his work as a pedagogue. Besides master classes in Germany, Spain and the USA, in 1996 he accepted a professorship of violin performance at the Hochschule fuer Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. Prof. Ženatý is often invited to serve on music competition juries (Prague Spring, Königin Sophie Charlotte, Pancho Vladigerov, Violine in Dresden), and he has repeatedly served as chairman of the jury of the International Beethoven Competition.Update: September 2010