„Robert Kowalski clearly believes in every note, soaring aloft at the slightest cantabile provocation and deftly negotiating the music’s technical chicanery with a
shimmering, silver-toned elegance"
- The Strad, 2018
The frst concertmaster of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana captivates audiences with a unique, intense sound and a musicality that is at once lively and elegant.
He began studying the violin aged seven, and only four years later performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra. His solo repertoire extends from the Baroque to contemporary music. He appears regularly as a soloist and chamber musician at music festivals in Europe, the USA and Asia, performing in prestigious concert venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Laeiszhalle (Musikhalle) Hamburg and Carnegie Hall in New York.
He has won prizes in a number of international competitions, including the Aleksander Tansman International Competition of Musical Personalities in Poland, the Young Artists Award of the Polish Ministry of Culture, and the Young Creators Award from the mayor of his native city of Gdansk.
Born in 1985, Robert studied in Germany and Switzerland with Waleri Gradow, later going on to work with with Kolja Blacher and Ana Chumachenco. His musical development was also profoundly infuenced by Bernard Greenhouse, Ivry Gitlis and Ida Haendel. He has worked with remarkable musical personalities such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Reinhard Goebel, Martha Argerich and Julian Rachlin, who have proved enormous sources of inspiration. His recording of the violin concerto by Richard Strauss with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and Markus Poschner, released in 2018 by the CPO label, earned critical acclaim throughout Europe and the nomination for International Classical Music Awards 2019.
Always seeking to expand his musical horizons, he has joined the world-renowned Karol Szymanowski Quartet in 2016.
He plays a J. B. Vuillaume violin from 1860, on generous loan from the Fondazione per l'Arte e Socialità.
