Tedi Papavrami | Violin

At the age of four, Tedi Papavrami started studying the violin with his father, Robert Papavrami, a renowned teacher who thoroughly influenced his artistic development. At the age of eight he performed Sarasate's “Airs Bohémiens” with the Tirana Philharmonic Orchestra and three years later the first violin concerto by Paganini.

In September 1982, thanks to the flutist Alain Marion, the French Government offered him a scholarship in France. French Television was immediately interested in this young soloist and Jacques Chancel invited him to perform in his tv show “Le Grand Echiquier”.

Pierre Amoyal was his teacher at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Winner of the Rodolfo Lipitzer Competition in Italy in 1985, Papavrami was also unanimously awarded with the First Prize of the CNSMP Conservatoire in 1986. He pursued his musical career guided by Zino Francescatti and Viktoria Mullova before being awarded the George Enescu Prize by the SACEM in 1992. In 1993 he won the First Prize of the Sarasate Competition in Pamplona, as well as the Special Public Prize.

Papavrami has performed throughout Europe, South Africa, Turkey, Japan and Israel with famous orchestras such as the Bayerische Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, Bologna Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre de Paris, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, as well as in prestigious festivals such as Montreux, Schleswig Holstein and Newport. He has also toured in Japan performing 24 Caprices by Paganini and in South America with Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. In addition, he has been acclaimed for his interpretation of the complete Sonatas and Partitas by Bach.

He has worked with distinguished conductors such as; Kurt Sanderling, Christopher Hogwood, Antonio Papano, Louis Langrée, Gilbert Varga, Zdenek Macal, Armin Jordan and more recently Paul Daniel and Alexander Vedernikov among others. The versatile Papavrami also regularly performs chamber music and his favorite partners include Philippe Bianconi, Huseyin Sermet, Paul Meyer, Raphael Oleg, Xavier Phillips and François-Frédéric Guy among others. Both as an actor and violinist, Papavrami was invited to shoot a TV series “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” (in the role of Danceny), together with Catherine Deneuve, Rupert Everett, Nastassja Kinsky and Danielle Darrieux. This series was shown all over the world and it's soundtrack has been recorded by Pan Classics.

For the AEON label, Papavrami signed to record the Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo by Bach and Scarlatti. As a member of the Schumann Quartet between 2002 and 2012, he recorded various CDs. Among those both the Chausson and Fauré's quartets hailed by critics. His CD with Philippe Bianconi which includes the sonatas for violin and piano by Brahms, was released in 2007.

Another interest of Mr. Papavrami is literature. In 2000, parallel to his activities as a musician, he has been recognized as the official translator of Albanian writer Ismail Kadaré for the publishing house Fayard. Papavrami lives in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was appointed professor of violin at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève in 2008. He plays a violin built for him by luthier Christian Bayon.

In April 2013, there has been a release of Papavrami's autobiography “Fugue pour Violon Seul” by Robert Laffont Edition, together with a box set of 6 CDs which includes the solo violin works by Bach, Paganini, Scarlatti and Bartok. Thanks to the exceptional agreement between both the publisher and the label, these musical and autobiographical works are also available on digital platforms.