Krysia Osostowicz, violin

Born in London of Polish descent, Krysia Osostowicz studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School, at Cambridge University and in Salzburg with Sandor Vegh. She has given concerto and recital performances throughout Europe and made many solo and chamber music recordings which have won awards in the UK, France and Germany. In 1995 she founded the Dante String Quartet which is now recognised as one of Britain’s finest ensembles, winning a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2007 and a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2009.

The Dante Quartet appears at major festivals and concert series in the UK, and has played in Holland, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Poland and Finland. For the past seven years the quartet held a residency at King’s College Cambridge, and now the group is beginning a new collaboration with Birmingham University. With the quartet, Krysia is the artistic director of the thriving Dante Summer Festival in the Tamar Valley (www.dantefestival.org).

Krysia’s recordings have won numerous prizes, including two Gramophone Awards, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis and the Diapaison d'Or. Her solo/duo recordings include the sonatas of Faure, Brahms, Bartok and Ravel for Hyperion, and she has also recorded Janacek’s violin sonata with the great Hungarian musician, Ferenc Rados. She has also collaborated with artists such as Radu Lupu, Steveb Isserlis, Thomas Ades, Ralph Kirshbaum and Ernst Kovacic. Much sought after as a teacher, Krysia has given masterclasses in France, Poland, Italy and Spain and is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has also created an advanced and highly successful chamber music course at Berbiguieres, in the Dordogne.

Krysia has a special love for Beethoven’s music and first played the complete cycle of violin sonatas in 2009. In 2016 the Dante Quartet will be playing the complete cycle of Beethoven’s string quartets at various venues in the UK.