The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) recently appointed David Radzynski, a graduate student pursing an artist diploma in violin performance at Park University’s International Center for Music (ICM), as its concertmaster. Radzynski, from Columbus, Ohio, was selected following an audition that ended Dec. 19 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Radzynski will assume his position in March 2015.
Thirty violinists were invited to compete for the position through a pre-screening process. Radzynski, one of four finalists, earned the appointment after performing Johannes Brahms’ “Violin Concerto” alongside the IPO and maestro Zubin Mehta. He was announced as unanimous winner by the jury after only five minutes of deliberation.
“I am still trying to digest all that is happening,” said Radzynski. “It is such an incredible honor. I would not have succeeded if it weren’t for Ben Sayevich and the incredible support I have received at the International Center for Music.”
Radzynski, who earned a graduate certificate in violin performance from Park in May, won the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Young Musicians Competition in 2001. He later appeared as soloist with the Polish National Philharmonic in Warsaw, Poland and was awarded first prize in the solo competition (senior division) of the American String Teachers’ Association.
“From the first time I heard David play, I knew he was a major talent,” said Sayevich, distinguished Lithuanian-Israeli violinist and professor of music/violin in the ICM. “I am so thrilled that he is being recognized by world-renowned musicians such as Mehta.”
The IPO, founded in 1936 by Bronislaw Huberman, performs multiple series, including an annotated Youth Concert Series, concerts for the “Arts for the People” project throughout Israel and special concerts for the Israeli Defense Forces at their outposts. The IPO also tours the world’s cultural centers and prestigious festivals annually, and contributes to the absorption of new immigrant musicians.
The Orchestra has hosted many of the world’s greatest conductors and soloists, while developing Israeli artists and young talents throughout Israel and abroad.