ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

George Hlawiczka is very versatile musician, performing as solo violinist to leading and conducting orchestras. He has a lot of experience with managing orchestras and their tours, being often the principal conductor.

George Hlawiczka is currently the principal conductor of the European Concert Orchestra who tour throughout India and China and work with the Shillong Chamber Choir. They recently made their debut at the Global Citizen Event in Mumbai with the band Coldplay and Amitah Bachchan, performing for 80 000.

He founded the Berlin Metropolitan Orchestra in 2019 which have toured to China, Greece and played in Munich Hercules Hall and in London St. Johns Smith Square. They will also feature in March 2023 on Iranian TV.

In December 2023 he will be going to China with the Sächsisches Sinfonieorchester.

He is also founding a Chamber music festival in Slovakia in the Tatra mountains.

He has been the concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra of India in Mumbai and of the Kammerphilharmonie Berlin (with whom he toured China in 2015) and was a member and co-leader of the English Chamber Orchestra from 1999-2008, with whom he toured throughout the world, both as co leader and chamber musician with artists such as Radu Lupu, Sarah Chang, Murray Periaha, Colin Davis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Igor Oistrach, Maxim Vengerov, Yuri Bashmet. He has also been a co leader of the San Francisco Ballet, London Philharmonic and worked as violinist with the the Rotterdam Philhamonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Les Arts Opera in Valencia, working with Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta on projects such as Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Keen to provide opportunities to younger colleagues, George Hlawiczka founded I Maestri in London which is an educationally based orchestra which was supported by its patrons Sir Neville Marriner and Jorma Panula. for young conductors and who have a concert season at St. John’s Smith Square in London as well as tours throughout Europe. They have performed each month over 16 years and programmed all the major symphonic and operatic repertoire as well as performing underperformed new as well as older works.

As conductor he has been a guest with the Vaasa Symphony, Verona Philharmonic, Pilsen Radio Philharmonic, Brasov Philharmonic and Moscow Symphony Orchestras and participated in the 2001 Sibelius Symposium Pilsen in the Czech Republic.

In June 2016 he performed throughout China on a 20 recital tour with Theodosia Ntokou, performing in Bejing, Shanghai, Jinan, Zhuhai, Dezhou, Jilin, Harbin, Chongqing, Fuling, Mudangjian among others. He also toured Germany with the Budapest Chamber Orchestra, performing Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' and has performed as soloist to Italy, Greece, Portugal, France, Argentina, Czech Republic, Holland, Montenegro and the USA.

As a chamber musician he has performed, among others, with Sarah Chang, Nobuko Imai, Jian Wang, Mischa Maisky, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Martha Argerich, Maxim Rysanov, Karin Lechner, Peter Caelen, Luiz de Moura Castro and Steven Osborne.

He has performed at Yale’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Conecticut, Aspen Music Festival, Oregon’s Bend Music Festival, at Lincoln Centre, New York City with the Jupiter Chamber Players, Cheltenham Music Festival, Patmos Religious Music Festival, Ragusa Music Festival, Torres Vedras with the Darcos Ensemble, Rijkholt Castle Virenze Chamber Series in Maastricht, in Buenos Aires, Mumbai, Kochi, Berbiguieres in France, Amsterdam’s Rode Hoed, Luxemburg, Kotor Music Festival.

As a soloist he has performed all major violin concertos, including Beethoven, Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Brahms, Bartok no. 2, Prokofiev nos. 1 and 2, Korngold, Walton, Respighi Concerto Gregoriano, Berg, Shostakovich no. 1, Beethoven Triple, Mozart Sinfonia Concertante, Bach and Mozart Concertos as well as Vivaldis and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons.

He was chosen to appear for the Queen of England aged 16, performing with pianist Steven Osborne in Franck’s Violin sonata and Bazzini’s Dance of the Goblins. He has also played for Prince Charles on numerous occasions, including for Yehudi Menuhin’s 60 birthday party at St. James Palace, London.

He graduated from the Utrecht Conservatoire, studying the violin with Wiktor Liberman and Philippe Hirshhorn before completing the Advanced Soloists' course with Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

He also participated in masterclasses with Dorothy Delay, Ruggiero Ricci, Sylvia Rosenberg, Gyorgy Pauk, Zacher Bron and Dora Schwarzberg

He plays a 1785 violin by Vinaccia from the school of N. Gagliano in Naples.

George Hlawiczka further studied conducting with Lawrence Leonard (Assistant to Leonard Bernstein), Jorma Panula (for 7 years), David Zinman and Murray Sidlin and was a Fellow at the Academy of Conducting in Aspen between 2000-2003. He has taken masterclasses with Sir Neville Marriner, Ivan Fischer, James Conlon and Michael Stern.