JOSEPH SWENSEN, VIOLINIST

The young American-born violinist Joseph Swensen is rapidly emerging as a musical personality of great power, virtuosity, and sensitivity. Mr. Swensen's widely acclaimed European debut with the Copenhagen Phil­harmonic was at Tivoli Gardens in 1980. Shortly thereafter, he was invited to perform in a chamber concert with Isaac Stern at Carnegie Hall honoring the maestro's 60th birthday. Since then he has performed with the Amsterdam Philharmonic at the Con­certgebouw, the Montreal Symphony, and the St. Louis Symphony, among others, and is a regular in the festivals of Marlboro, Spoleto, and Aspen. In 1982 he appeared as soloist in a 13-concert tour with the Rochester Philharmonic under the baton of David Zinman, which included his debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. That same year, Joseph Swensen was the recipient of the first Avery Fisher Career Grant Award, and made his New York debut in March. Mr. Swensen's busy schedule takes him to Europe several times a year.

Born in 1960, the native New Yorker began his violin studies at the age of five and gave his first public performance in New York two years later. Mr. Swensen won his first com­petition when he was ten years old perform­ing with the Rockland Symphony of New York. By age 13 he had won competitions at both the Aspen Festival and the Juilliard School where he studied with Dorothy Delay. In 1978 Joseph Swensen was award­ed the Sponsorship by the Leventritt Foun­dation which led to numerous appearances with symphony orchestras and in recital throughout the United States and Canada.

Joseph Swensen was born into a musical family with the unusual ethnic background of Norwegian and Japanese. Both his parents are professional musicians and his younger brother and sister are performing musicians as well.

Review of Joseph Swensen, Violin performs Edvard Grieg's Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-3