Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s focus is to get to the heart of the music, to its meaning for us - now and here. With a combination of depth, brilliance and humour, Kopatchinskaja brings an inimitable sense of theatrics to her music. Described by The New York Times "a player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition", Kopatchinskaja’s distinctive approach always conveys the core of the work, whether it is with an out-of-the-box performance of a traditional violin repertoire classic or with an original staged project she presents as experimental performance dramaturge.

A boundary-crosser who thrives on the challenge of musical experiments and describes contemporary music as her lifeblood, her absolute priority is the music of the 20th and 21st century and the collaboration with living composers such as Francisco Coll, Luca Francesconi, Michael Hersch, Márton Illés, György Kurtág, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Aureliano Cattaneo, Stefano Gervasoni, and many others. Kopatchinskaja directs staged concerts at venues on both sides of the Atlantic and collaborates with leading orchestras, conductors, and festivals worldwide. Starting from the 2024/25 season, she will serve as the Artistic Partner of the SWR Symphony Orchestra. A virtuoso, storyteller, and all-around phenomenon, her artistic direction will involve designing her own programmes, which will include both established concert formats and innovative theatrical and interdisciplinary approaches. Among these is the staged concert The Peace Project, which reflects on centuries of existential suffering caused by war through a kaleidoscope of baroque and modern works up to the present day. The project addresses the numerous reports from war zones, the violent disruption of daily life, and the constant fear for one's life and loved ones. Kopatchinskaja will also be Artist in Residence at the 2025 Klarafestival, where she will continue to actively support themes related to environmental protection and sustainability in innovatively curated projects. Furthermore, she holds the position of Associated Artist of the SWR Experimentalstudio, one of the most important international research centres in the field of electronic music.

This season, she channels her creative prowess and versatility into performances at La Biennale di Venezia, BBC Proms, Lucerne Festival, and an appearance with the New York Philharmonic. In 2024, Kopatchinskaja is honouring Schönberg's 150th anniversary and performs his monumental Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker, Dresdner Philharmonie, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, to name just a few. A trusted partner of the LPO for a decade, Kopatchinskaja will collaborate with the orchestra and Edward Gardner on an extensive U.S. tour culminating in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York this autumn. Kopatchinskaja also reunites with Ensemble Resonanz for a new project, playground, to light-footedly deconstruct our familiar world, reassemble it back and lead the audience on an adventure of discovery through boundlessness. The programme features a new double concerto by Dai Fujikura alongside Claire Chase.

In 2023/24, Kopatchinskaja curated large-scale residencies at four prominent concert halls: the Southbank Centre in London, Philharmonie Essen, Wiener Konzerthaus (where she is the youngest honorary member of the Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft), and this year's Golden Decade festival at the Dresdner Philharmonie, which featured her performing six major violin works from the Classical Modern era over three consecutive evenings. In a new production directed by Barrie Kosky at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Songs and Fragments, Kopatchinskaja collaborated with soprano Anna Prohaska on György Kurtág's Kafka-Fragments.

Highlights of the previous seasons included residencies at the London Barbican Centre, Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Kopatchinskaja's continued role as artistic partner of Camerata Bern, and a daring musical experiment with Herbert Fritsch - a Neo-Dada opera production Vergeigt at Theater Basel. Following the international success of her previous collaboration with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra - Bye Bye Beethoven - Patricia Kopatchinskaja returned for the premiere performances of a new staged concert with the ensemble - Les Adieux - a project confronting the rapid deterioration of the environment and the loss of the natural world. Kopatchinskaja also performs as a vocal artist in Ligeti’s Mystères du macabre and Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire where she takes on the role of Pierrot himself, as well as her project presenting Kurt Schwitters’ poem Ursonate as a film in the style of Dada.

Kopatchinskaja’s discography includes over 30 recordings, among them GRAMMY award-winning Death and the Maiden with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a project which was also re-created as a semi-staged filmed performance with Camerata Bern. Recent CD releases season included Les Plaisirs Illuminés with Sol Gabetta and Camerata Bern, which was saluted with a BBC Music Magazine award and Le monde selon George Antheil with Joonas Ahonen (both on Alpha Classics). A revival of the project Maria Mater Meretrix with Anna Prohaska presenting the image of women throughout the centuries in a musical mosaic was also released on CD last season, as well as a new recording with Fazil Say which marks the comeback of their duo and has been awarded Editor's Choice by Gramophone. This season has also seen the release of the album Take 3 with clarinettist Reto Bieri and pianist Polina Leschenko - a testament to the enduring partnership of these three artists, celebrating their shared musical journey and musical origins.

Following her recent residencies with Staatskapelle Dresden and Bamberger Symphoniker, Sol Gabetta opens the 2024-25 season with a tour of Europe with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck. At the Wiener Konzerthaus, where Gabetta has thrilled audiences time and again, she will be featured in her portrait series across two chamber music evenings and as a soloist, performing concertos by Shostakovich and Saint-Saëns with Wiener Symphoniker and Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. After her long-anticipated return to the U.S. for a debut with the New York Philharmonic and performances with The Cleveland Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Klaus Mäkelä, one of her most esteemed musical colleagues, Gabetta will join the New York Philharmonic and Jakub Hrůša in 2025 once again for a guest performance at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in Colorado.

Gabetta maintains her longstanding connection to the Philharmonia Orchestra illuminating Weinberg’s Cello Concerto under the direction of Santtu-Matias Rouvali and returns to the Munchner Philharmoniker to collaborate with Lahav Shani after earning wide acclaim for her powerful rendition of Lutosławski’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra last season. Upcoming engagements will see Gabetta reunite with Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as well as with Gewandhaus Orchestra led by Andris Nelsons. Other highlights included appearances with Constantinos Carydis and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in tribute performances to Shostakovich and Schnittke, two eminent composers who stood resilient against repression and remained vocal in their expression, and performances with Gabetta’s fellow ‘inventer’, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja presenting known and unknown works as part of a tour of Germany, as well as apperances with Staatskapelle Berlin and Edward Gardner, performances with Concertgebouw Orchestra and a European tour with Oslo Philharmonic - both led by Klaus Mäkelä.

A respected advocate of new compositions for her instrument, Sol Gabetta gave the world premiere performance at Radio France of a newly commissioned Cello Concerto by Francisco Coll which was created especially for her. Gabetta recently brought this concerto to the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, following a previous performance at the BBC Proms Japan, where she shared the stage at Tokyo’s Orchard Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

A sought-after guest artist at leading festivals, Sol Gabetta was Artiste étoile at Lucerne Festival where she appeared with Wiener Philharmoniker and Franz Welser-Möst, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and François-Xavier Roth and the London Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Marin Alsop. She continues drawing inspiration from a wide circle of collaborators and musical encounters at the Solsberg Festival, which flourishes under her committed artistic direction.

Chamber music is at the core of Gabetta’s work, visible in her upcoming trio recitals with Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov, a tour with her longtime recital partner Bertrand Chamayou through Europe, and recent appearances with Kristian Bezuidenhout and Francesco Piemontesi at Gstaad Festival and at the Schubertiade. In the past, chamber music performances led her to venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall in London, Lucerne, Verbier, Salzburg, Schwetzingen, and Rheingau festivals, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and Beethovenfest Bonn.

In recognition of her exceptional artistic achievements, vision, and creativity, which have made a significant contribution to Europe’s cultural life, Sol Gabetta was honoured with the European Culture Prize in 2022. She also received the Herbert von Karajan Prize at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 2018 where she appeared as soloist with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann. In 2019 she was awarded the first OPUS Klassik Award as Instrumentalist of the Year for her interpretation of Schumann’s Cello Concerto. The ECHO Klassik award saluted her accomplishments biennially between 2007 and 2013, and in 2016. A GRAMMY Award nominee, she also received the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year Award in 2010 and the Würth-Preis of the Jeunesses Musicales in 2012 as well as commendations at Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. She continues to build her extensive discography with SONY Classical, the most recent releases being a recording of late Schumann works and a live recording of the cello concertos by Elgar and Martinů with Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle / Krzysztof Urbański. In 2017, Gabetta joined forces with Cecilia Bartoli on an extensive tour throughout Europe showcasing their album Dolce Duello, released on Decca Classics.

Sol Gabetta performs on several Italian master instruments from the early 18th century, including a cello by Matteo Goffriller from 1730, Venice, provided to her by Atelier Cels Paris, and since 2020, the famous "Bonamy Dobree-Suggia" by Antonio Stradivarius from 1717, on generous loan from the Stradivari Foundation Habisreutinger. She has been teaching at the Basel Music Academy since 2005.