Alexander Kagan

Concert Master I

First Violin

Alexander Kagan was born 1984 in Moscow, into a family of legendary Russian musicians: Oleg Kagan and Natalia Gutman and started playing the violin at the ages of six. After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory in 2009 in the class of Prof. Kravchenko, he studied with Prof. Kolja Blacher in Hamburg and Berlin where he was granted a master degree in 2013. His studies included a semester at the Manhattan School of Music in New York in the Pinchas Zukermann program and numerous masterclasses with Professors like Pavel Vernikov, Philipe Hirshhorn, Maurizio Fuchs. He has won prizes at the Glazunov International Competition in Paris, the David Oistrakh International Violin Competition in Odessa.

Recent engagements include performances with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra of Fartein Valen’s violin concerto in 2022, Bartok Violin Sonata with Víkingur Ólafsson in February 2021, Walton violin concerto as a soloist with Norrlandsoperan’s Symphony Orchestra and Joann Falletta in Umeå, Stockholm and Sundsvall (Sweden) 2019, a live TV solo appearance with the Swedish Radio Orchestra's at the 2018 New Year's Concert, several concerts with Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra in Sweden in 2016, a performance of Lalo's Sinfonia Español on the island Madeira Portugal (2016), two performances of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors Andrew Manze and Andrew Litton in 2014. Alexander had his debut at the ‘Grand Hall’ of the Moscow Conservatory 2012 where he played the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Orchestra of the Moscow Conservatory.

Since 2020, Alexander is appointed as 1st concertmaster in Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway. Prior to that, he was employed as 1st Concertmaster of Norrlandsoperan in Sweden (2016-2020) and as Associate Concertmaster in Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (2012-2016). Alexander is frequently invited to lead major orchestras in Scandinavia, Europe, Asia and the US as guest concertmaster. Such as English National Opera, Swedish Radio, Island Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic (USA), Trondheim Symphony Orchestra 2019, Malaysian Phiharmonic 2019, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Stockholm Royal Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Royal Opera, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquestra Sinfònico Casa da Musica Porto, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Alexander Kagan is a keen chamber musician and performs at concerts including those at the Lucerne Festival, Seoul Spring Chamber Music Festival, ‘December Evenings’, Ars Longa and the ‘Dedication’ Festival, Moscow, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, Storioni Chamber Music Festival (Eindhoven). Since 2022 Alexander is the 1st violinist of the newly founded Bergen String Quartet.

Alexander plays a violin by G.B. Guadagnini (1780) on loan from J. O. Odfjell in Bergen, Norway