Leonidas Kavakos
One of the world’s best violinists, Leonidas Kavakos, came to play for the first time in Singapore last night and Keela and I were able to see him in person. He came to the Esplanade Theatre and performed Brahm’s Violin Concerto in D major with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Leonidas, a Greek national, has been playing the violin since age two. He won the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki in 1985. He was 18 years old, and was the youngest competitor.
I am not a classical music aficionado, or even an enthusiast, but I was impressed by his performance. He was on his feet the entire time, and played an extremely difficult piece without sheet music for close to 40 minutes. He was also very expressive while he was playing; jumping around, moving with the music and even doing a fair amount of snorting (which was weird.)
Anyways, I’ve embedded a bit of the same piece from a different performance. It was amazing to watch and Keela and I feel very fortunate to have seen him in person.
Bryan Lupton
