Ida Kavafian is a classical

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist and viol

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

ist.

Kavafian was born in Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 to Armenian parents. She moved with her family to America in 1956, and began studying violin in Detroit at age six. Her teachers included Ara Zerounian, Mischa Mischakoff

Mischa Mischakoff

Mischa Mischakoff was an outstanding violinist and concertmaster for 70 years, from the age of ten until the age of eighty....

, Oscar Shumsky

Oscar Shumsky

Oscar Shumsky was an American violinist and conductor born to Russian-Jewish parents.-Biography:...

, and Ivan Galamian

Ivan Galamian

Ivan Alexander Galamian was an influential Armenian violin teacher of the twentieth century.He was born in Tabriz, Iran, but his family soon emigrated to Moscow, Russia. Galamian studied violin at the School of the Philharmonic Society there with Konstantin Mostras until his graduation in 1919...

, the last two of which she studied under while attending the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 from 1969 to 1975. Her first major exposure came when she won the Vianna da Motta International Violin Competition in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 in 1973. She won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1978 which led to her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

. That same year she became a member of the Tashi ensemble with Peter Serkin

Peter Serkin

-Biography:He was born in New York City and is the son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, and grandson of the influential violinist Adolf Busch, whose daughter Irene had married Rudolf Serkin...

, who also accompanied her for her New York solo debut. She began performing with her sister, Ani Kavafian

Ani Kavafian

Ani Kavafian is a classical violinist and professor at the Yale School of Music.Kavafian was born in Istanbul to parents of Armenian descent. In 1956 she moved with her family to Detroit, by which time she had begun playing piano. She began on violin at age nine, studying under Ara Zerounian and...

, in 1983, when the pair played together at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

. In 1983-84 she toured with Chick Corea

Chick Corea

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

. A member of the Chamber Music Society

Chamber Music Society

Chamber Music Society is a jazz album by American bassist Esperanza Spalding. After Spalding's surprise Grammy win, the album re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 34 with sales of 18,000....

 from 1989–1993 and 1996–2002, she played with the Beaux Arts Trio

Beaux Arts Trio

The Beaux Arts Trio was a noted piano trio. They made their debut on July 13, 1955 at the Berkshire Music Festival, known today as the Tanglewood Music Center. Their final American concert was held at Tanglewood on August 21, 2008. It was webcast live and archived on NPR Music...

 from 1992 to 1998 and sporadically thereafter. She founded her own group, Opus One

Opus One

Opus One may refer to:* Opus One Winery* Opus No. 1, a tune by Sy Oliver and Sid Garris...

, in 1998, with Anne-Marie McDermott

Anne-Marie McDermott

Anne-Marie McDermott is a classical music pianist, and member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She is also the artistic director of the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, and Artistic Director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival in Key Largo, FL and the Avila Chamber Music...

, Steven Tenenbom, and Peter Wiley

Peter Wiley

Peter Wiley is a cellist and cello teacher. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music at 13 years of age, where he studied with David Soyer...

. She teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music

Curtis Institute of Music

The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...

 and the Bard College Conservatory of Music

Bard College Conservatory of Music

The Bard College Conservatory of Music is a program of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Founded in 2005, the program is unique among music conservatories in the United States in that all undergraduate students are required to participate in a five-year dual-degree program, in which...

. She plays a J. B. Guadagnini violin made in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 in 1751, and a Moes and Moes viola made in 1987.

Kavafian's repertory includes classical and early romantic

Romantic music

Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....

 works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn

Mendelson is a Polish/German Jewish family name, meaning "son of Mendel", Mendel being a Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew given name Menahem, meaning "consoling" or "one who consoles".Mendelssohn is the surname of a number of people:...

, as well as 20th century

20th century classical music

20th century classical music was without a dominant style and highly diverse.-Introduction:At the turn of the century, music was characteristically late Romantic in style. Composers such as Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius were pushing the bounds of Post-Romantic Symphonic writing...

 works of Ruth Crawford Seeger

Ruth Crawford Seeger

Ruth Crawford Seeger , born Ruth Porter Crawford, was a modernist composer and an American folk music specialist.-Life:...

, Charles Wuorinen

Charles Wuorinen

Charles Peter Wuorinen is a prolific Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. His catalog of more than 250 compositions includes works for orchestra, opera, chamber music, as well as solo instrumental and vocal works...

, and Toru Takemitsu

Toru Takemitsu

was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...

. Takemitsu has composed a concerto for Kavafian.

Kavafian is also notably the founder of two prestigious music festivals: the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival

Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival

The Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival is an annual summer classical music festival located in Vail, Colorado. The festival was founded in 1987 by violinist Ida Kavafian and attorney John Giovando with the initial purpose of presenting a concert series of chamber music...

 and the Music from Angel Fire

Music from Angel Fire

Music from Angel Fire, is the first chamber music festival in New Mexico designed to serve the artistic needs of rural northern New Mexico communities...

.

Discography

With Chick Corea

Chick Corea

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

• Septet
  Septet (album)
  Septet is an album by pianist Chick Corea featuring music for string quartet, piano, flute and French horn recorded in 1984 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:The Allmusic review awarded the album 2 stars.-Track listing:# "1st Movement" - 1:57...
  
  (ECM, 1984)