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 du Capitole de Toulouse, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Trondheim Symphony, the National Philharmonic of Russia, the Israel Philharmonic, the 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), Wigmore Hall (London), the City of London Festival and Toppan Hall (Tokyo). She has also appeared at international festivals in Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Deauville, Menton, Montpellier, St Denis, Strasbourg, Verbier and the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad. She has been actively involved with the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland over the past ten years.

In the 2012-13 season Alexandra made her debuts with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana and the Helsinki Philharmonic. 2013-14 promises to be an exciting season; following the Nuremberg Symphony’s season-opening under Alexander Shelley, Alexandra will make her debuts with the Detroit Symphony under Leonard Slatkin (her first appearance in the USA), the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Hungarian National Philharmonic (under Zoltбn Kocsis). She will also tour twice to Japan.

Alexandra enjoys an ongoing relationship with many leading orchestras in France. In addition to the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, she has also performed with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National d’Оle-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 time she worked with most of the BBC ensembles. She maintains her connection with the UK through her position as a London Music Masters prize-winner 2012-2015.

In the spring of 2008 Alexandra’s debut recording of the Bruch and Paganini concertos 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 the 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 Professor Boris Kuschnir and won the Eurovision Young Musicians competition in 2004. Currently based in Paris, in 2012 she and two friends founded the non-profit organisation Esperanz’Arts, the culmination of four years’ involvement in charitable projects aimed at creating opportunities through the arts. In January 2013, Alexandra was named a “godmother” of the newly established El Sistema France.

The violin Alexandra plays was crafted by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini in Turin around 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.