Mischa Lefkowitz was born in Riga, Latvia, and began his
violin studies at the age of seven. He made his symphony debut
at the age of twelve. At seventeen he was admitted to the
Moscow Conservatory the class of the legendary Leonid Kogan.
He has also studied with such renowned master performers as
Nathan Milstein, Mischa Mischakoff, Roman Totenberg, Henri
Temianka and with Jean Fournier of the Mozarteum Academy in
Salzburg, Austria.
Top prize winner at the 1983 Carnegie Hall International
American Music Competition (co-sponsored by the Rockefeller
Foundation). Mr. Lefkowitz also was winner of the City of
Paris "Music Francaise" prize from the 1985 Yehudi
Menuhin International Violin Competition.
Other awards include First Prize at the Rotary International
Competition in California and prizes at the Paganini International
Competition, Bach Festival, Young Artists Awards, All State
contest for violin soloists and the Concertino-Prague Radio
Competition.
Mr. Lefkowitz has been a recipient of a solo recitalist fellowship
grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and, since
1985, California Arts Council Touring grants.
He has appeared as a soloist in the
United States, Canada, England, Austria, Switzerland, France
and Finland. Orchestra performances include the London Philharmonic,
Detroit Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, California Chamber
Symphony, American Chamber Symphony, Academica Camerata and
the Victoria Symphony, to name but a few.
He has made recital appearances at Carnegie Hall, Merkin
Hall (New York) Philips Collection (Washington, D.C.) Salle
Playel (Paris) the Wilshire Ebell (Los Angeles), the California
palace of the Legion of Honor (San Francisco) and in many
other prestigious series world-wide. He is a frequent guest
artist in many summer festivals including the Meadow Brook,
Aspen and Kneisel Hall Festivals. Many of his festivals have
been heard on CBS and PBS television and radio networks.
The Lefkowitz discography includes many world premiere recordings
and works by Mozart, Giardini, Bloch, and Rozsa, on the Laurel,
Cambria Sequence and Pantheon labels. Most recently he released
an album of romantic concertos that include Faure, Sibelius,
and Dieidre violin concertos with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra
(Cambria label). His new recordings include Bartok CD, Recital CDs of
French music and romantic masterpieces and works of contemporary composers.
Mr. Lefkowitz is the Founder and Music Director of the chamber
orchestra and string ensemble Masterpiece Virtuosi.
In 2001, Mr. Lefkowitz was serving as a guest Violin Proffessor
on the faculty of UC Irvine. He
has been an artist in residence from 1988 to 2006 at
Chapman University in Orange. From 2007, he continues to perform
solo recitals and as a soloist with orchestras in California. Since 1977 Mr.
Lefkowitz has been a member of Los Angeles Philharmonic first
violin section.
