Austria: Wiener Symphoniker names Dalibor Karvay its new first concertmaster

The Wiener Symphoniker has named 34-year-old Dalinor Karvay of Slovakia its new first concertmaster. Online classical music magazine The Strad reported the news on 15 November.

Karvay was born in Vrútky, Czechoslovakia and began to play violin under his father's direction at the age of three. He attended the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, where he studied under the world-famous Professor Boris Kuschnir, and he has won many international competitions, such as the VIIIth International Meeting of Young Musicians in Córdoba (1996), the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in Berlin (2002), the Concours International de Violon Tibor Varga in Switzerland (2003), the "New Talent" International Music Competition in Bratislava (2005) and the David Oistrakh International Violin Competition in Moscow (2008).

He has worked with musicians such as Leif Segersta, Jaap van Zweden and Mistislav Rostropovich, with whom he performed in concert for Prince Charles at Windsor Castle in 2003. His other notable collaborations have been with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, the Czech Philharmonic, the Het Gelders Orkest, the Solistes Européens Luxembourg and the Slovak Philharmonic.

The virtuoso is also a professor at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna and performs on an instrument crafted by Viennese violin maker Julia Maria Pasch. He is replacing Jan Pospichal, who retired as first concertmaster last month.