Artist in Residence 2024-2025 The violinist Ava Bahari

The violinist Ava Bahari was born in Gothenburg 1996. She started playing the violin when she was three years old and did her first solo concert eight-year-old in Gothenburg Concert Hall. As a thirteen-year-old, she gained attention for her role as a musical prodigy in the television series “Molanders”.

”I am convinced that there are as many definitions of beauty as there are people on earth. As a musician, I constantly strive for beauty. What qualities does something beautiful have?” Ava Bahari

Ava Bahari has studied at the Oslo Academy of Music’s program for young artists under the direction of Terje Moe Hansen and then with the violinist Per Enoksson 2011-2015, who was first concertmaster in the Gothenburg Symphony at the time. She made her soloist debut together with us in the Gothenburg Symphony in Schönberg’s violin concerto in January 2023.

In 2015, Ava Bahari began bachelor and master studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin under the direction of Kolja Blacher and she obtained her diploma in May 2024. In 2021 she also obtained a degree at the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona, Italy.

Ava Bahari has received many awards over the years, such as 3rd prize at the Premio Paganini competition in Genova, 4th prize at the Concours International Tibor Varga in Sion 2021, 1st prize at the Aurora Music Competition in Stockholm 2019. She has also received music and cultural scholarships from Sten A Olsson’s Foundation for Research and Culture, Royal The Society of Science and Knowledge in Gothenburg and the Willinska Foundation.

Throughout her career, Bahari has been taught by prominent violinists and educators such as Leonidas Kavakos, Mihaela Martin, Pierre Amoyal, Midori Goto and Boris Kuschnir. She has worked with conductors such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Pekka Kuusisto and Ryan Bancroft and performed with orchestras such as us in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, and the Odense Symphony Orchestra.

During the 2024-2025 season, she will also play with The Philharmonia Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Some of her extra exciting performances are a Paganini performance at the Seoul Arts Center, a recital on the “Stauffer” Guarneri del Gesù 1734 at the museo del Violino Cremona and a recital at the Konzerthaus Berlin.

To be Artist in Residence

Over the years, we have had the privilege of working closely with a number of the world’s most prominent conductors and soloists who have been our Artist in Residence.

When we appoint an Artist in Residence, we make room for the artist to visit the Gothenburg Symphony on a couple of different occasions during the season. We invite them to show themselves from different sides. It can be anything from the traditional solo concert to chamber music with our own musicians and perhaps a visit to a jazz context.

If the Artist in Residence is a conductor, we would like the person to conduct works from different genres and eras, take part in an introduction and perhaps have a master class for younger talents. In short: an artist we get the chance to get to know a little more than in a single week during an entire playing year. Someone who can become a new friend.

Former Artist in Residence

• 2012-2013 Nikolaj Znaider, violin
• 2014-2015 Martin Fröst, conductor & clarinet
• 2015-2016 Barbara Hannigan, conductor & soprano
• 2016-2017 Truls Mørk, conductor & cello
• 2017-2018 Hélène Grimaud, piano
• 2018-2019 Janine Jansen, violin
• 2019-2020 Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
• 2020-2021 Nina Stemme, soprano