The violinist Kirill Kobantschenko is one of the most versatile musicians of his generation. As a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and of the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera he combines the highest standards in the orchestral tradition with an extraordinary openness to crossing musical boundaries.
He was born in 1978 in Odessa into a family of musicians — his mother was a classical pianist, his father a jazz musician — and from a young age developed a passion for a wide variety of forms of musical expression. His training as a musician began at the legendary Stolyarsky School of Music in Odessa, and then took him — via further studies with Zakhar Bron — to Vienna, where his playing was significantly shaped by Dora Schwarzberg and Boris Kuschnir.
Since 2001 he has been a member of the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, and in 2004 he was accepted into the Vienna Philharmonic.
Parallel to this work he pursues his own artistic vision: with K + K Vienna, a platform which he founded, he devises programmes that combine classical chamber music with jazz, world music and electronic sounds, and which open up new perspectives on the concert format. The ensemble has received several invitations to perform at the opening party of the Salzburg Festival and came to international attention with the album Vienna Is Calling You, released by Deutsche Grammophon.
His artistic curiosity has led him to collaborate with artists such as Fatma Said, Parov Stelar and Rolando Villazón. Whether performing on the world’s great concert stages or engaging in cross-genre projects, he understands music as a living dialogue between tradition and the world of today.
Away from the concert platform, Kirill Kobantschenko dedicates himself with equal passion to DJ-ing and boxing — two worlds whose energy, rhythm and spontaneity also shape his musical thinking.
