Professional career

Kim Kashkashian was born of Armenian parents in Michigan. She studied the viola with Karen Tuttle. She attended high school at Interlochen Center for the Arts. She won the 2nd prize at the 1980 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the 1980 ARD International Music Competition in Munich. She has been featured on over 30 albums and performs pieces from both classical and contemporary composers, working among others with Gidon Kremer and Yo Yo Ma, the Vienna Philharmonic and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. She also played the viola in the soundtrack of the film Ulysses' Gaze, together with Eleni Karaindrou. Her albums have won awards, notably the 1999 Edison Prize and the Cannes Prize for Chamber Music in 2000.

She commissioned new works for the viola, from composers such as Tigran Mansurian and Peter Eötvös.

Kashkashian won a 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for the 2012 album Kurtág / Ligeti: Music for Viola.

Kashkashian currently teaches at the New England Conservatory. Previously she taught at Freiburg and in Berlin. Among her students are Julia Rebekka Adler, Sheila Browne, Lim Soon Lee and Diemut Poppen. She is the founder and artistic director of Music for Food, a musician-led initiative for local hunger relief.

Discography

A partial list of her recordings includes:

• Asturiana. Transcribed songs of Manuel de Falla, Alberto Ginastera, Xavier Montsalvatge, Carlos Guastavino, and Carlos López Buchardo. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1975)
• Johann Sebastian Bach: 3 Sonatas for Viola da gamba and Cembalo. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Keith Jarrett, cembalo. (CD ECM 1501)
• Béla Bartók: Viola Concerto. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Peter Eötvös, conductor. Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. (CD ECM 1711)
• Luciano Berio: Voci, Naturale. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion, Luciano Berio, conductor. (CD ECM 1735)
• Harold Blumenfeld: Voyages after Hart Crane (1977). Patrick Mason, baritone, Kim Kashkashian, viola, David Starobin, guitar, Gordon Gottlieb, Louis Oddo, percussion, Arthur Weisberg, conductor. (LP CRI SD 387)
• Linda Bouchard: Pourtinade. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion. (CD ECM 1425)
• Johannes Brahms: Sonatas for Viola and Piano, Op. 120. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1630)
• Benjamin Britten: Lachrymae, Op. 48. Kim Kashkashian, viola Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1316)
• Benjamin Britten: Lachrymae, Op. 48a. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Dennis Russell Davies, conductor, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. (CD ECM 1506)
• Elliott Carter: Elegy for Viola and Piano. Kim Kashkashian, viola Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1316)
• Paul Chihara: Redwood. Kim Kashkashian, viola. Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion. (CD ECM 1425)
• Peter Eötvös: Replica for Viola and Orchestra. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Peter Eötvös, conductor, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. (CD ECM 1711)
• Gabriel Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in c minor, Op. 15. Beaux Arts Trio, Kim Kashkashian, viola. (CD Philips 422 350-2)
• Alexander Glazunov: Elegie for Viola and Piano, Op. 44. Kim Kashkashian, viola Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1316)
• Paul Hindemith: Trauermusik. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Dennis Russell Davies, conductor, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. (CD ECM 1506)
• Paul Hindemith: Viola Sonatas Opp. 31 No. 4, 25 No. 1, 1937, 11 No. 4, 11 No. 5, 25 No. 4, 1939. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1330)
• Sándor Jemnitz: Trio for violin, viola and guitar, Op. 33. Benjamin Hudson, violin, Kim Kashkashian, viola, David Starobin, guitar. (CD Bridge 9004 or 9292)
• Giya Kancheli: Abii ne viderem. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Vasiko Tevdorashvili, voice, Natalia Pschenitschnikova, alto flute. Dennis Russell Davies, conductor, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. (CD ECM 1510)
• Giya Kancheli: Vom Winde beweint (Mourned by the Wind). Kim Kashkashian, viola, Dennis Russell Davies, conductor, Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn. (CD ECM 1471)
• Eleni Karaindrou: Ulysses' Gaze, film score. Kim Kashkashian, viola. (CD ECM 1570)
• Zoltán Kodály: Adagio for Viola and Piano. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1316)
• György Kurtág: Neun Stücke, Jelek, Op. 5, Hommage à R. Sch., Op. 15d. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robert Levin, piano, Eduard Brunner, clarinet. (CD ECM 1508)
• György Kurtág: Movement for viola and orchestra. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Peter Eötvös, conductor, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. (CD ECM 1711)
• Franz Liszt: Romance oubliée. Kim Kashkashian, viola Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1316)
• Tigran Mansurian: "...and then I was in time again", Lachrymae, Confessing with Faith. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Jan Garbarek, soprano saxophone, The Hilliard Ensemble, Christoph Poppen, conductor, Münchener Kammerorchester. (CD ECM 1850)
• Tigran Mansurian: Hayren, Music of Komitas and Mansurian, Duet for viola and percussion. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion, Tigran Mansurian, piano, voice. (CD ECM 1754)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in c minor, K546. Gidon Kremer, Daniel Phillips, violins, Kim Kashkashian, viola, Yo-Yo Ma, cello. (CD Sony MK42134)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Duos for Violin and Viola, K423, K424, Trio for Violin, Viola and Piano K498 “Kegelstatt”. Gidon Kremer, violin, Kim Kashkashian, viola, Valery Afanassiev, piano. (CD DG 415 483-2)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra, K364. Gidon Kremer, violin, Kim Kashkashian, viola, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor, Vienna Philharmonic. (CD DG 413 461-2)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Divertimento in Eb, K563. Gidon Kremer, violin, Kim Kashkashian, viola, Yo-Yo Ma, cello. (CD Sony SK39561)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet in c minor, K406. Guarneri Quartet, Kim Kashkashian, viola. (CD RCA 7771-2-RC)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet in Eb major, K614. Guarneri Quartet, Kim Kashkashian, viola. (CD RCA 7772-2-RC)
• Krzysztof Penderecki: Viola Concerto. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Dennis Russell Davies, conductor, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester. (CD ECM 1506)
• Alfred Schnittke: Viola Concerto. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Dennis Russell Davies, conductor, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken. (CD ECM 1471)
• Franz Schubert: Quartet No. 15 in G major, Op. 161 D887. Gidon Kremer, Daniel Phillips, violins, Kim Kashkashian, viola, Yo-Yo Ma, cello. (CD Sony MK42134)
• Erwin Schulhoff: Sextet. Gidon Kremer, Philippe Hirschhorn, violins, Nobuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian, violas, David Geringas, Julius Berger, cellos. (LP ECM 1347/48)
• Robert Schumann: Märchenbilder, Op. 113, Märchenerzählungen, Op. 132. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robert Levin, piano, Eduard Brunner, clarinet. (CD ECM 1508)
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1425)
• Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 14, Op. 142. Gidon Kremer, Yuzuko Horigome, violins, Kim Kashkashian, viola, David Geringas, cello. Edition Lockenhaus Vol. 4/5. (LP ECM 1347/48)
• Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 15, Op. 144. Gidon Kremer, Daniel Phillips, violins, Kim Kashkashian, viola, Yo-Yo Ma, cello. (CD Sony MK44924)
• Ralph Vaughan Williams: Romance for Viola and Piano. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1316)
• Henri Vieuxtemps: Elegie for Viola and Piano, Op. 30. Kim Kashkashian, viola, Robert Levin, piano. (CD ECM 1316)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]