Kim Kashkashian | |
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Kashkashian during a rehearsal in Marlboro, Vermont 2008
Photo: Claire Stefani |
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Background information | |
Born |
Detroit, Michigan United States |
31 August 1952
Genres | Classical music |
Occupation(s) | Musician, Composer, Educator |
Instruments | Viola |
Associated acts | Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Vienna Philharmonic, Nikolaus Harnoncourt |
Kim Kashkashian (Armenian: Քիմ Քաշքաշյան, born August 31, 1952 in Detroit, Michigan) is a Grammy-award winning Armenian-American violist.
Kim Kashkashian was born of Armenian parents in Michigan. She studied the viola with Karen Tuttle. She attended high school at Interlochen Center for the Arts. She won the 2nd prize at the 1980 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the 1980 ARD International Music Competition in Munich. She has been featured on over 30 albums and performs pieces from both classical and contemporary composers, working among others with Gidon Kremer and Yo Yo Ma, the Vienna Philharmonic and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. She also played the viola in the soundtrack of the film Ulysses' Gaze, together with Eleni Karaindrou. Her albums have won awards, notably the 1999 Edison Prize and the Cannes Prize for Chamber Music in 2000.
She commissioned new works for the viola, from composers such as Tigran Mansurian and Peter Eötvös.
Kashkashian won a 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for the 2012 album Kurtág / Ligeti: Music for Viola.