A L E X A N D E R V A V I L O V V I O L I S T
Alexander Vavilov enjoys performing regularly with some of the leading groups in the area, such as Boston Pops, Boston Ballet, Odyssey Opera, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Festival Orchestra, Radius Ensemble, Portland Symphony Orchestra and others at venues including Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, and Jordan Hall.
In 2009 Alex won the Borromeo String Quartet NEC guest artist award. He was also the 1st prize winner at the 2003 ASTA competition in MA and a national finalist. The Boston Musical Intelligencer hailed Alex’s playing as “very outgoing and propulsive”, while Boston Arts Diary described his performance as “exuberant” and “expressive”.
Festival participation includes Tanglewood Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, and Meadowmount. Alex performed chamber music with James Buswell, Barbara Westphal, and Ronald Leonard and recorded for the BMOP/Sound and Carl Fischer labels.
Photo by Tatiana Daubek
Love for finding new ways to connect people through art led Alex on a path of exploration. In 2014 Alex co-founded Sheffield Chamber Players, a group specializing in bringing chamber music to the intimacy of a living room and in 2022 Alexander founded an interdisciplinary project Soundscape Visions, which explores the fusion of sound, music, and visual art.
Originally from Ukraine, Alex could not stay idle in the face of the Russian invasion of his homeland. Together with the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, in the Spring of 2022 Alex initiated the Relief Fund for Ukrainian Musicians, which during the course of its operation provided urgent financial support to over 200 musicians from Mariupol, Kharkiv, and other areas of Ukraine, which were hit the hardest by the war.
Photo by Spencer Hasak
In the United States Alexander studied at the Boston Conservatory with Patricia McCarty and New England Conservatory with Kim Kashkashian. Additional studies with Joseph Silverstein, James Buswell, Roger Tapping, James Dunham, and Robert Vernon. Currently Alexander is on faculty at Winchester Community Music School, where he enjoys passing on the knowledge and experience to the younger generation. When he is not busy performing or teaching, Alex enjoys inline skating, sourdough bread baking, and mushroom foraging.
Alexander plays on a beautiful 2012 viola by Thomas Bertrand.
Photo by Deborah J Karson