Leonidas Kavakos teaches in Basel
The internationally renowned violinist Leonidas Kavakos will take up a position as professor of violin at the Department of Classical Music at the Basel University of Music FHNW from the fall semester of 2025.
Leonidas Kavakos has been giving regular violin masterclasses at the Basel School of Music for many years. Born in Athens in 1967, he began playing the violin at the age of five. He studied with Stelios Kafantaris at the conservatory in his home town and with Josef Gingold at Indiana University. In 1985, Kavakos won the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki, and in 1988 he won the Naumburg Violin Competition in New York and the Premio Paganini in Genoa. In 1991, he received the Gramophone Concerto of the Year Award for his world premiere recording of the Sibelius Concerto in the original version, which had long been considered unplayable.
