A “Truly communicative” (New York Times) and “impeccable and powerful soloist” (Neue Musik Zeitung), Franco-American violinist Elissa Cassini explores the full expressive range of the violin through her captivating tone and charismatic performances.Her concerto appearances include the celebrated favorites by Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Beethoven, Schumann and Sibelius. She also recently performed Philip Glass’s concerto, the ‘American Four Seasons’ with the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne in Rennes under the baton of Laura Jackson.
Expanding on the traditional repertoire, Elissa’s passion for new music was sparked when Pierre Boulez invited her as concertmaster to the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra in 2009. She has since collaborated with internationally acclaimed composers such as Beat Furrer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Alexandre Lunsqui, Philippe Leroux, Tristan Murail and Kaija Saariaho. Elissa’s premieres include Jérôme Combier’s concerto ‘Conditions de Lumière’, performed with the Argento New Music Project and the Cairn Ensemble in New York and the NEM in Montreal under Guillaume Bourgogne, Anders Eliasson’s Concerto for Violin and Strings, with the Arcos Chamber Orchestra at the Berlin Konzerthaus and Nicolas Bacri’s Concerto Op. 116, with the Orchestre de Massy in France.