Alexandra Soumm was born in Moscow in 1989 and grew up in France where she began studying violin at the age of five with her father. She gave her first concert in Ukraine at the age of seven. In 2000, she entered the Vienna Conservatory and the University of Music in Graz in the class of the great pedagogue Boris Kuschnir, also professor of Julian Rachlin, Nikolaj Znaider and Lorenzo Gatto.

 

In 2002, she won the Grand Prix of the Vienna Conservatory, which allowed her to be invited to perform as a soloist at the Konzerthaus in Vienna. She continues her solo career by performing in Luxembourg, Slovakia and France at the Festival de Radio-France in Montpellier.

 

The following year, she performed at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, at the Colmar Festival and in Berlin with the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Spivakov.

 

In 2004, she brilliantly won first prize at the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in Lucerne. She then received the BSI bank scholarship and the Herbert von Karajan scholarship from the Karajan Centre in Vienna.

 

In 2006, she made her debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yoel Levi in Paganini's First Concerto and was immediately invited back in 2007 to play Mozart's Fourth Concerto and, in 2008, with Raphaël Frühbeck de Burgos for the 60th anniversary concert of the State of Israel. The collaboration between Alexandra Soumm and the orchestra continued in 2011 during a tour with Herbert Blomstedt.

 

In January 2009, Alexandra made her debut with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Neeme Järvi, performing Bruch's concerto in the Salle Pleyel. She has also performed with many major orchestras in France, such as the Orchestre national de Lyon conducted by Michel Plasson, the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse with Tugan Sokhiev, the Orchestre national de Montpellier with Juraj Valcuha, the Orchestre national d'Ile-de-France with Enrique Mazzola, and the Orchestre philharmonique de Nice with Frédéric Lodéon.

 

Alexandra Soumm performed Glazunov's concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Alexander Lazarev, as well as with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Roberto Benzi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Storgård, Lalo's Spanish Symphony with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lionel Bringuier, Beethoven's Concerto with the London Mozart Players, Mozart's Concerto No. 4 with the Wiener Kammerorchester and Bach's Concerto with the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra conducted by Yuri Bashmet.

 

Alexandra Soumm is regularly invited to perform at international festivals such as the Verbier Festival, Schleswig Holstein, the Strasbourg Festival, the St Denis Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Martha Argerich Festival in Lugano, the Musical Summits of Gstaad, the Dubrovnik Festival, the Menton Festival, the Besançon Music Festival, the Radio France and Montpellier Festival and the Musical September in Montreux, as well as the Easter Festival and the Musical August in Deauville.

 

Since being named BBC New Generation Artist at the beginning of the 2010-211 season, Alexandra has worked with most BBC orchestras in the UK. She has also performed Tchaikovsky's concerto with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Sondergard, Mendelssohn's concerto with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra with Gilbert Varga, and will return this year to the Louvre and the Gstaad Festival.

 

In the spring of 2008, Alexandra Soumm recorded the concertos of Paganini and Bruch for the Claves label. His second album, composed of the complete Grieg Sonatas for violin and piano, accompanied by David Kadouch, was released in 2010.

 

Alexandra Soumm received the London Music Masters Award in the fall of 2012, which will give her the opportunity to play with the London Philharmonic and collaborate with educational programs in England, including the Bridge Project.

 

At the age of just 23, along with two musician friends, Alexandra founded the Esperanz'Arts charity association, which aims to bring the arts to schools, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters.

 

Alexandra plays on a 1785 Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini violin known as "Ex-Kavakos", which Florian Leonhard graciously lent to her.