Ida Kavafian enjoys an international reputation as one of the most versatile and active musicians performing today.   With a repertoire as diverse as her talents, Ms. Kavafian has electrified recital and orchestral stages nationally and internationally and her commitment to contemporary music has led to many world premieres by composers as varied as Toru Takemitsu, who wrote a concerto for her, and jazz greats Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis, both of whom with which she has toured and recorded.  Her television credits include a solo feature on CBS Sunday Morning.  Since her founding membership in the innovative group TASHI over thirty years ago, Ms. Kavafian’s chamber music appearances have included many renowned festivals and series throughout the world.  She has toured and recorded with the Guarneri, Orion and American Quartets as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, of which she is an Artist Member.  She and her sister, Ani continue to perform together regularly in recital and with major orchestras.  Their television credits together include features on CBS Sunday Morning and NBC’s Today Show, and they have recorded for Nonesuch.

Ms. Kavafian was the violinist of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio for six years.  Some of their honors during her tenure included being named “Ensemble of the Year” by Musical America in 1997 and a 1998 Grammy nomination.  More recently, she co-founded an exciting piano quartet ensemble, called OPUS ONE, along with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, violist Steven Tenenbom and cellist Peter Wiley.  OPUS ONE has recently recorded the piano quartets of Dvorak, due for release in 2007.

For twenty-four years, Ida Kavafian has been the Artistic Director of the highly successful festival, Music from Angel Fire in NM.  She also founded and guided Bravo! Colorado in Vail as Music Director for ten years, building it into one of the leading festivals in the country.  As an educator, she is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute and the new Conservatory of Music at Bard College, and has served on numerous competition juries and boards, including Chamber Music America.

In recent seasons, Ms. Kavafian presented the World Premiere of Michael Daugherty’s concerto, “Fire and Blood” with the Detroit Symphony under the direction of Neeme Jarvi, and also performed the work at Carnegie Hall with the America Composers Orchestra as well as with the National Symphony of Mexico in Mexico City.  She created and performed a recital series at Lincoln Center (and on tour) featuring the complete Violin and Piano music of Stravinsky, alongside Sonatas of Bach and contemporary premieres.  Other highlights included a return to her musical youth at the Interlochen Center for the Arts (and with them on tour in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit), where she was featured as soloist in “Fire and Blood.”  She also opened the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra season with a performance of Prokofiev’s First Concerto, opened the New Mexico Symphony season with “Fire and Blood,” and presented the World Premiere of another work by Michael Daugherty for solo violin and winds at Lincoln Center as well as a World Premiere of a work written for OPUS ONE by George Tsontakis.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey of Armenian descent, Ms. Kavafian’s family immigrated to the United States when she was three, settling in Detroit.  She began her studies at age six with Ara Zerounian, continuing with Mischa Mischakoff, and ultimately earned her Master of Music degree with honors from the Juilliard School, where she was a student of Oscar Shumsky.    Ms. Kavafian made her New York debut at the 92nd Street “Y” with pianist Peter Serkin as a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions.  She was a recipient of the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1988.  Her violin is a J.B. Guadagnini, made in Milan in 1751, and her viola was made in 1987 by Peter and Wendela Moes.  Ms. Kavafian resides in Connecticut and Philadelphia, where she and her husband, violist Steven Tenenbom can be found passionately pursuing their hobby of breeding, training and showing prize winning champion Hungarian Vizsla dogs under the kennel name, “Opus One Vizslas”.  Even in this field, Ms. Kavafian has enjoyed great success, having bred, trained and owned the Number One Vizsla All Systems in the US for the year 2003 and the National Champion of 2007.