Acclaimed as “a performer of exceptional authority and remarkable presence” (The Strad) and as “one of the great violinists of tomorrow” (Diapason), Yossif Ivanov has rapidly established himself on the international scene. At the age of 16, he won the First Grand Prize at the Montreal International Music Competition, then, two years later, the Second Prize (as well as the Audience Prize) at the Queen Elisabeth Competition.
In recent seasons, Yossif Ivanov has made distinguished debuts with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de l’Opéra de Toulon, the Orchestre de Picardie, the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of Taiwan Strings. Highlights of the 2019-2020 season include the world premiere of an unpublished concerto by Ysaÿe with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège at Flagey, the Sibelius concerto with the Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Anu Tali, and concerts with the Solistes Européens de Luxembourg, as well as concerts in Taiwan and China.
Yossif Ivanov has already appeared as soloist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the London Philharmonic Orchestra (on tour in England and the United States), the Philharmonia Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, the Vancouver Symphony, the Rotterdams Philharmonisch, Konzerthausorchestrer Berlin, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Residentieorkest The Hague, English Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestre Milano Verdi, Filarmonica A. Toscanini, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre National d’Ile de France, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra; under conductors such as Neeme Järvi, Marin Alsop, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vladimir Jurowski, Kazushi Ono, Jaap Van Zweden, Stéphane Denève, J-J Kantorow, Gerard Schwarz, Hans Graf, Walter Weller, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Philippe Herreweghe, Jesús López-Cobos, Carl Miguel Prieto, Yuri Simonov, Louis Langrée, John Axelrod, Maxim Emelyanychev, Aziz Shokhakimov, Joshua Weilerstein.
In recital and chamber music Yossif Ivanov has been invited to the Menton and Montpellier Festivals, the Louvre & Cité de La Musique in Paris, Violons Sur le Sable, Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Kioi Hall Tokyo, the Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama, the Schloss Elmau, the Essen Philharmonic and the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti in Rome, the Ferrara Musica, the Teatro Carlo Fenice in Genoa, the Ravenna Musica, the Eilat Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the Washington Phillips Collection and Carnegie Hall (New York), the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club (Montreal), …
In addition to his regular partner Philippe Ivanov, Yossif has collaborated with pianists Itamar Golan, Javier Perianes, Ingrid Fliter, Frank Braley, François-Frédéric Guy, David Kadouch, Plamena Mangova and Julien Quentin. Chamber music partners include Mischa Maisky, Edgar Moreau, Pieter Wispelwey, Adrien & Christian-Pierre La Marca, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Michel Portal, Adrien Boisseau, Alina Pogostkina, Valery Sokolov and Camille Thomas. With violinists Lorenzo Gatto and Hrachya Avanesyan, Yossif formed the Trilogy ensemble, an atypical violin trio that breaks down the boundaries between different musical genres and presents masterpieces from the classical repertoire, jazz and film music. Their videos on their Youtube channel have generated over 10 million views.
Yossif’s catalogue of recordings has received rave reviews, including a Diapason d’Or de l’Année for his collection of Belgian sonatas (Franck, D’Haene and Ysaÿe) on the Ambroisie/Naïve label, and a Diapason d’Or in 2020 for his recording of a recently discovered concerto by Ysaÿe on the Fuga Libera label. Other recordings include concertos by Bartók, Shostakovich, Dutilleux, D’Haene and Vieuxtemps, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky with the Brussels Philharmonic, released on Warner Classics in 2022.
After taking his first musical steps, he continued his musical education with Zakhar Bron, Igor and Valery Oïstrakh and Augustin Dumay. Since 2008, he has taught at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth and at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, where he heads the violin department.
Yossif currently plays a 1757 Pietro Antonio Dalla Costa violin on loan from private collectors via Strings for Talent, a fund housed by the King Baudouin Foundation.