Kim Kashkashian

“The viola is still in a state of flux, of experimentation… It is an absolutely flexible tool that can respond to the player’s imagination perhaps more than any other." Kim Kashkashian, one of the pre-eminent artists of ECM New Series, was born in Detroit, Michigan. She studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore with Walter Trampler and Karen Tuttle, and worked intensively with mentor Felix Galimir at the Marlboro Music Festival. A committed proponent of contemporary music, she has enjoyed creative relationships with György Kurtág, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Giya Kancheli, and Arvo Pärt, and commissioned works from Peter Eötvös, Ken Ueno, Thomas Larcher, Lera Auerbach, and Tigran Mansurian. Kashkashian’s 30-year relationship with ECM Records has produced an extensive discography that includes an award-winning recording of the Brahms sonatas, the complete Hindemith sonatas, the concertos of Bartók, Eötvös, Kurtág, Berio, Kancheli, Olivero, and Mansurian, the Bach Sonatas for viola da gamba (with Keith Jarrett), “Hayren” (music of Tigran Mansurian and Komitas), and “Asturiana”, songs from Spain and Argentina. The album “Kurtág/Ligeti: Music for Viola” won the 2013 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Album and in the same year Kashkashian was awarded the George Peabody Medal for her exceptional contribution to music in America.