Dalibor Karvay

Exceptional virtuosity, supreme precision and musical maturity have made the violinist Dalibor Karvay one of the most outstanding Slovak artists of his generation.
From 2020 to 2025 he was first concert master of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, with which ensemble he last appeared in 2025 as a soloist under its chief conductor Petr Popelka at the Vienna Konzerthaus and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

His 2025/26 engagements have included performances as a soloist in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Vietnam. In 2026/27 he will be Artist in Residence with the Arthur Rubinstein Łódź Philharmonic.

He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, the Solistes Européens, Luxembourg, the Czech Philharmonic and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, and has worked with conductors such as Tetsurō Ban, Tomáš Brauner, Marie Jacquot, Marek Janowski, Lucie Leguay, Tomáš Netopil, Leif Segerstam, Giedrė Šlekytė, Kaspar Zehnder and Jaap van Zweden.

As a chamber musician he has performed with Magda Amara, Radek Baborák, Wenzel Fuchs, Roman Patkoló, Julian Rachlin, Stefan Stroissnig and the Pavel Haas Quartet among others, as well as with members of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.

He recorded for Slovak Radio while still a student. In 2017 he released the solo album Souvenirs. His passionate search for the ideal sound was documented on the 2004 film Stradivari – Search for Perfection.

At the age of 18 he performed at Windsor Castle with Mstislav Rostropovich in the presence of the then Prince Charles. He is a prize-winner of numerous international competitions, and in 2009 was awarded the Minister of Culture’s Prize of the Slovak Republic.

Dalibor Karvay studied at the conservatory in Žilina and in Vienna with Boris Kuschnir. He is professor of violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and from 2014 to 2025 taught at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.

Dalibor Karvay plays the Antonio Stradivari violin ‘ex Benecke’ (Cremona, 1694), provided to him through a loan from the Austrian National Bank.