Meet the Artistic Director

Since his critically acclaimed Lincoln Center debut in 1993, the American violinist Odin Rathnam has established himself as one of the most passionate and versatile artists of his generation. He has received unanimous praise from critics and audiences for his “captivating temperament,” “brilliant technique” and “recalling the legendary violinists of the past”. A veteran performer at many major European and American festivals including the Algarve International Music Festival in Portugal, Denmark’s Tivoli and Vendsyssel Festivals, Deia International Festival in Mallorca, Aspen, Caramoor and Endless Mountain Music Festival. He has also appeared in recital on the Market Square Concerts series, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall, where Rathnam first appeared at the age of 15. As a soloist, he has performed with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the New Amsterdam Symphony, the Colombian National Symphony, the Camden and Hayes Orchestras in England, the York Symphony, the Hershey Symphony, the Lancaster Symphony, the Central Pennsylvania Symphony and the Harrisburg Symphony, enjoying collaborations with conductors including Stuart Malina, Richard Westerfield, Stephen Gunzenhauser, Anne Harrigan, Victor Liva, Robert Hart Baker, Miriam Burns, and many others.

Mr. Rathnam’s past performances include Lalo Symphony Espagnole with the Hershey Symphony, Wieniawski f# minor violin concerto with the York Symphony, Erick Korngold, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky violin concerti with the Harrisburg Symphony, collaborations as guest violist with the Ying Quartet and the Raphael Trio, and the complete sonatas for violin and piano of Johannes Brahms with pianist Stuart Malina. In March 2004, Mr. Rathnam gave the Columbian premier of Korngold concerto with the Colombian National Symphony Orchestra in Bogota, led by Charles Peltz. The season continued with summer appearances as violinist and violist for several programs at the Boswil Festspiel in Switzerland, culminating in a performance on July 4th of Mozart’s Symphonia Concertante.

More recent seasons have included performances of concerti of Bernstein, Mozart and Bach with the Philadelphia Virtuosi, and annual appearances at the Endless Mountain Music Festival performing Mozart #3, Sarasate “Zigeunerweisen”, Wieniawski “Legende” and numerous chamber music programs with various artists for the Market Square Summer Concert series. Rathnam also performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the orchestras of Harrisburg and Lancaster and a Tivoli Festival debut, performing Prokofiev Sonata for Two Violins with Nikolaj Znaider. The Danish newspaper, Kristelig Dagblad, hailed the “outstanding, full-blooded romantic violin playing by both players.”

The 2008/09 season included a solo violin recital at The Forum, tracing the history of the solo violin repertoire from Bach to Piazzola and a performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with his newly founded group, The Pro Musicis Ensemble at the Barshinger Center in Lancaster, PA. This concert, conducted by Maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser, was recorded and released by West Branch Records in the Fall of 2009. In addition, Rathnam gave nine performances of Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy and two performances of Beethoven Romance in F with Stuart Malina and the Harrisburg Symphony. Summer engagements also included Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet with the Fry Street Quartet and pianist Michael Sheppard as well as Lalo “Symphonie Espagnole” with the EMMF orchestra. On September 13, 16, and 20, 2009, Mr. Rathnam assembled a group of leading musicians for the first West Branch International Music Festival, held at the West Branch Resort near Deposit, NY. The inaugural year’s theme honored the bicentennial of Felix Mendelssohn with performances of the beloved Octet in E flat, as well as Sonatas, Trios, and String Quintets. The festival was met with overwhelming response, prompting Mr. Rathnam to expand the programming dramatically for 2010.

Mr. Rathnam is extremely committed to the development of young musicians and his numerous students have been accepted at major conservatories throughout the United States and abroad, several going on to win prizes in national and international competitions. He has served as a performing faculty member at the Anker Buch’s Danish Summer School for Strings on the island of Mors, Danish Strings led by Lars Bjornkjaer, and the Nordic Music Academy led by Nicolaj Znaider in Denmark. These experiences have prompted Mr. Rathnam to add an Academy for gifted, young string players and pianists to the burgeoning West Branch International Music Festival. From July 18-31, 2010, this immersive program will welcome 37 of the world’s most gifted instrumentalists to study and work alongside leading performing artists, concurrent with the Festival’s public concerts. For more information, go to www.westbranchfestival.org.

Upcoming engagements include performances of Brahms B Major Trio with Stuart Malina and Jennifer DeVore, Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe in Copenhagen and the United States, and several performances of Brahms Concerto in addition to chamber music appearances at various summer festivals.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Rathnam has performed frequently in Harrisburg, Baltimore and New York with Concertante, the internationally acclaimed chamber group he founded in 1995. His 2000 recording of Strauss “Metamorphosen” received the highest praise from Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine who wrote “[Concertante's] performance [of the Strauss, Metamorphosen] is white-hot, so intensely felt and so superbly realized technically as to be almost beyond praise; they create their own benchmark in this version.”

Odin Rathnam has collaborated as a violinist and violist with leading artists of his generation including: violinists Nikolaj Znaider, Gil Shaham, Adele Anthony and Kurt Nikkanen; pianists Rohan De Silva, Albert Tiu, Robert Koenig and Anton Nel; and cellists Matt Haimowitz, Bion Tsang, Laszlo Fenyo and Daniel Gaisford.

Mr. Rathnam has performed extensively on American and European radio and television, including the major classical stations of New York, Washington and Harrisburg as well as coast to coast broadcasts on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, CBS’s 60 Minutes, Danish and Swiss National Radio.

Mr. Rathnam received his formal training at Mannes College of Music with Sally Thomas and at the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay. He studied chamber music with Felix Galimir and Josef Gingold. He also worked closely with the Danish violinist, Anker Buch.

Mr. Rathnam has recorded for the Helicon, Kleos, and West Branch labels. He performs on a rare Italian violin crafted by Bartolomeo Calvarola in 1755, and the “ex-Menuhin” Dominique Peccatte bow of ca. 1830.