Violin
Eva Zavaro
Artist website"To tell a story and move the soul"
Such is music's mission according to Eva Zavaro. Born in 1995 in Paris to a French composer father and a Polish violinist mother, she is one of the most brilliant French violinists of her generation. Passionate about music, she "plays from the heart" (Ivry Gitlis) across numerous countries as both a soloist and chamber musician, sharing the stage with renowned artists.
Following her studies at the Conservatoire de Paris (with Roland Daugareil, Suzanne Gessner, and Christophe Poiget), she further refined her craft under Julia Fischer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Munich.
She was nominated in the "Instrumental Soloist Revelation" category at the 2021 Victoires de la Musique Classique. In 2018, she won First Prize at the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria as well as the Vadim Repin Prize for the best interpretation of Mozart. She was also awarded the 2023 "Révélation" prize by the Fondation Engie and the 2016 Georges Enesco Prize by SACEM.
At age 14, Eva performed as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner at Salle Pleyel. Since then, she has collaborated with numerous orchestras worldwide: performing at Prague's Rudolfinum in Chausson's Poème and Ravel's Tzigane, and performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto accompanied by the Orchestre de Paris under Alain Altinoglu for the television program "Fauteuils d'Orchestre." She has collaborated repeatedly with the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn and Fayçal Karoui. In 2019, she made her debut at the Berlin Philharmonie with the Potsdamer Kammerorchester performing concertos by Mozart and Bach. In March 2021, she debuted at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Julien Masmondet in an all-Saint-Saëns program.
Eva is deeply committed to contemporary music and has premiered numerous works, several of which were dedicated to her (by Pascal Zavaro, Lucas Debargue, and Karol Beffa). She recorded Pierre Wissmer's Violin Concerto No. 2 for Claves with the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alain Pâris.
Also a dedicated chamber musician, Eva participated in the 2014 Seiji Ozawa International Academy (Switzerland) and performed under his baton at Geneva's Victoria Hall and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. In piano recitals, she has been heard at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany, the Rencontres Musicales d'Évian, and the Konzerthaus Berlin. She has also performed in Russia at the Mariinsky Concert Hall as part of the "White Nights" Festival.
Her discography reflects her artistic sensitivity and dedication: in November 2024, her debut album with La Dolce Volta, Notturno, featuring sonatas by Szymanowski and Fauré with pianist Clément Lefebvre, was released. Her world-premiere recording of Oskar Posa's Violin and Piano Sonata (1901) with Juliette Journaux, released in 2025 on Voilà Records, received unanimous international critical acclaim.
Eva Zavaro plays on an Italian violin known as the "Cornell, McMenemy," combining craftsmanship by Nicolo Amati and Antonio Stradivari, generously loaned to her.