The Greek violinist will begin the three-year role in 2027
Conductor-violinist Leonidas Kavakos has been named the Minnesota Orchestra’s principal guest conductor. The three-year appointment will start in the autumn of 2027. Kavakos will appear in three weeks of subscription concerts each season, including conducting the orchestra at least twice a season. He will also appear in additional concerts and artistic projects as soloist or chamber music collaborator.
Kavakos first debuted with the orchestra in 1995 and most recently appeared as soloist and conductor in October 2025. It has been 40 years since the Minnesota Orchestra appointed a principal guest conductor.
Music director of the orchestra Thomas Søndergård said: ’We are very happy to welcome Leonidas Kavakos into this new role. He is an artist of great integrity and creativity who will bring conviction, passion and interesting projects to our Orchestra and audiences. I know he will contribute substantially to the musical vitality of the organization, and I’m looking forward to our first collaboration.’
Kavakos said:
’I am thrilled to be joining the Minnesota Orchestra as its principal guest conductor. As a young music student still forming a musical identity, I was deeply inspired by the Minnesota Orchestra’s recordings with the legendary Dimitri Mitropoulos. The Orchestra produces a sound of rare warmth and flexibility, an element that has impressed me since my debut as a soloist in the 1990s. Through the years, it has been my great pleasure to share the stage with its wonderful musicians in all of our performances together, including at Carnegie Hall.’
Kavakos’s 2025-26 season has included solo performances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France among others. Conducting engagements include with the Czech Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Barcelona Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra.
In 2022, he was elected by the Academy of Athens as a member of the Chair of Music in the Second Class of Letters and Fine Arts for his services to music. In 2024, he was appointed professor of violin at the Basel Academy of Music. He plays the 1734 ‘Willemotte’ Stradivari violin.
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