With his exceptional wealth of repertoire including more than 50 violin concertos, he is a favored guest artist with many international orchestras. Known for his versatility, his engagements also include solo recitals and chamber music collaborations.
The springboard to his international career came as a result of being a prize winner in the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition followed immediately by debut engagements with the Moscow and Czech Philharmonic. Other successes include First Prize at the Prague Spring Competition, as well as being a chosen laureate of the UNESCO International Rostrum of Young Performers. In the subsequent years following his victories, Ivan Zenaty made his orchestral and solo debuts in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Zurich, Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Jerusalem.
The musicianship of Ivan Zenaty has been influenced the most by his personal encounters with Nathan Milstein, Ruggiero Ricci and André Gertler. Studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow under the tutelage of Igor Bezrodny, had the greatest impact on his technical approach to the violin.
The great Czech musical tradition was passed on to Ivan Zenaty through his mentor Josef Suk, which resulted in many subsequent years of professional partnership and culminated in a recording of the complete works of W. A. Mozart. Other collaborations include great artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Serge Baudo, Valery Gergiev and Neville Marriner.
Ivan Zenaty’s recordings have always aroused the enthusiastic acclaim of listeners and music critics. His prolific output of over 40 CD’s includes the complete works of Telemann, Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schulhoff, Dvořák and Grieg. His new recording of the complete works of Dvořák has attracted extraordinary attention, as has his recording of both violin concertos by J. B. Foerster with the BBC Symphony Orchestra London and its music director Jiri Belohlavek.
A natural counterbalance to Ivan Zenaty’s concert and recording activities is his work as an acclaimed teacher.
Ivan Zenaty has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
In 2019 he joined the faculty of the Hochschule fur Musik in Dresden where he is currently teaching.
Summer activities will include teaching at the Meadowmount School of Music.
Thanks to the Harmony Foundation of New York, Ivan Zenaty plays a rare Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu violin made in 1740.
