Daniel Lozakovich

The Swedish violinist Daniel Lozakovich emerged as a child prodigy and continued to earn plaudits as a teen, signing with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label at the age of 15. Lozakovich was born in Stockholm on April 1, 2001. He was not groomed for music by his parents, neither of whom were musicians, Instead, he was enthusiastic about sports (and has continued to pursue soccer and boxing after reaching world-class levels as a violinist). At age six, Lozakovich was sent to a music school in an attempt to give him a well-rounded set of activities. His attention immediately settled on a violin, and after one lesson, his teacher announced that he had unusual talent. Just two years later, Lozakovich was appearing with the Moscow Virtuosi and their conductor, Vladimir Spivakov. Lozakovich took classes at music schools in Vienna, Karlsruhe (where his teacher was Josef Rissin), and Geneva, making festival appearances around Europe in the summer. He has modeled his playing on that of Jascha Heifetz and Yehudi Menuhin, among others, and another important mentor has been teacher Eduard Wulfson. Soon Lozakovich’s playing began to attract the attention of major conductors. The first was one of the most famous of all, Valery Gergiev, who booked Lozakovich for the 2015 New Year’s concert of the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra and then for a performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61. Later came conductors Robin Ticciati, Andris Nelsons, Semyon Bychkov, and Hartmut Haenchen. Deutsche Grammophon signed him to an exclusive contract in 2016, but the young violinist was not in a hurry to release his debut; he added to his repertoire only gradually, cultivated other interests (including popular music and sports), and was busy enough joining a Frankfurt Radio Symphony tour of Japan. Lozakovich’s Deutsche Grammophon debut, featuring two Bach violin concertos and a solo violin partita, recorded with the Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, appeared in 2018. As of that year, Lozakovich remained a student at the Collège du Léman in Geneva. ~ James Manheim