Biography

Maxim Kosinov was born in St-Petersburg, Russia in 1983 and began his music studies when he was three years old. He started to play the violin when he was 5 and studied at the Special Music School per N. A. Rimskiy-Korsakov Conservatoire in St. Petersburg with Professors Dobrynina, Aranovskaya and Ovtcharek, obtaining a Diploma in 2001. In the same year he entered the N.A. Rimskiy-Korsakov Conservatoire in St. Petersburg and continued his studies with Professor Ovtcharek.

Maxim went on to study with Professor Uwe Martin Haiberg at the Universität der Künste Berlin in 2003, graduating five years later with a Bachelor of Music degree (with honours) and obtained the best possible grade in Germany.

In addition to modern violin he spent three years, from 2000 until 2003, studying baroque violin with Marie Leonhard (Amsterdam, Holland) and Andrey Reshetine (Artistic Director of the International Early Music Festival, St. Petersburg). From 2001, he played for a year in the first regular Russian baroque orchestra, the “Catherine the Great Orchestra”. Whilst a baroque violinist in the Orchestra of the Dutch Bach Society (2003-2005), he played under the baton of conductors such as Masaako Suzuki, Jos van Veldhoven and Marcus Creed.

His participation in master classes with Marie Leonhardt was supported by scholarships from the Gartow and the Zeit Foundations in Germany in 2001-2002. He attended the Orchestra Academy of the Radio Symphony Orchestra (Berlin) in 2004-2005. A later Ferenc-Fricsay Scholarship provided the opportunity for him to play in the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin and study in the Orchestra Academy in 2005-2006. In 2008 he participated in a master class with Gerard Poulet at the Festival Pablo Casals, Prades, France.

Among Maxim's latest successes at competitions are: Second Prize at the Beare Solo Bach Competition, London (March 2008), the Special Prize of a concerto engagement at the 2nd Britten International Violin Competition, London (April 2008), the Fifth Prize at the Lipizer Competition in Gorizia, Italy (September 2008), the Second Prize and the Audience Prize at the Max Rostal Competition in Berlin, Germany (March 2009).

Since 2006, Maxim has been performing as a freelance violinist with the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin and for the past year he has been playing regularly in the English Chamber Orchestra.

During his career to date, he has given many solo performances in the main concert venues in St. Petersburg. He has given solo performances in Germany, England, France, Italy and Japan.

Maxim is presently continuing his studies with Professor Haiberg on a postgraduate course at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He plays a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin lent to him by this University.

(8.04.09)