French violinist Alexandra Soumm is a multi-faceted artist who is equally at home in concerto and chamber repertoire. Orchestras with which she has collaborated in recent years include the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Trondheim Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and the Tokyo Symphony. As a chamber musician, she has given recitals at the Auditorium du Louvre (Paris), the Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels) and Wigmore Hall (London). She has also appeared at international festivals such as the City of London Festival, Deauville, Montpellier, MDR Musiksommer, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Verbier, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad and Varna. She is very involved with the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland and has been taking part in the project for the past ten years.
In the 2013-14 season, Alexandra appeared with the Nuremberg Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Hungarian National Philharmonic, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira. She also made her American debut with the Detroit Symphony performing the Sibelius concerto under Leonard Slatkin, who subsequently invited her to the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s summer season at the Hollywood Bowl. 2014-15 promises to be an equally exciting season. In addition to her debuts with the London Philharmonic and the Munich Symphony, she also returns to the BBC Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana.
Alexandra enjoys an ongoing relationship with many leading orchestras in France. In addition to such orchestras in Bordeaux and Toulouse, she has also performed with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National d’Île de France, the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Orchestre National de Montpellier. In the UK, she was a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artist scheme (2010-12), during which she collaborated with most of the BBC ensembles. She maintains her connection with the UK through her position as a London Music Masters Award recipient (2012-15).
In the spring of 2008 Alexandra’s debut recording of concertos by Bruch and Paganini was released on the Claves label. Le Monde de la Musique described her interpretation as “displaying a passionate and lyrical personality”. Her second disc with Claves, a recording of violin sonatas by Grieg, was released in spring 2010.
Born in Moscow, Alexandra started to learn the violin with her father at the age of five and gave her first concert two years later. She later moved to Vienna to study with the renowned teacher Boris Kuschnir and won the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition in 2004. Now based in Paris, she, along with two friends, founded the non-profit organisation Esperanz’Arts in 2012, which was the culmination of four years’ involvement in charity projects aimed at creating opportunities through the arts. In January 2013, Alexandra was named Godmother of the newly established El Sistema France.
The violin Alexandra plays was crafted by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini in Turin c.1785 and is known as the “ex-Kavakos”. The loan of the instrument by a benefactor forms part of the London Music Masters Award and has kindly been arranged through Florian Leonhard Fine Violins, London.
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