The violinist was an influential teacher in his adopted home country of Denmark
The Ukrainian violinist, concertmaster and teacher Alexandre Zapolski died on 7 March 2025 aged 74, after a long illness. He was born in Odesa in 1951 and graduated from the Ukrainian National Academy of Music in Kyiv, where he studied with Olga Parkhomenko, herself a student of David Oisktrakh.
After concertmaster and teaching appointments in Donestk and Moscow, Zapolski moved to Denmark in 1992 with his family to take up a post as violinist in the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (DRSO), shortly after which he founded the Zapolski Quartet. Later he was concertmaster with the DRSO until his retirement in 2014.
A highly respected pedagogue, Zapolski began teaching the violin at Brøndby Music School in 1993, and was appointed as a teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music (DKDM) in 2023. He founded the youth orchestra Zapolski Strings in 1992, which trained young players from the age of eight.
Tim Frederiksen, head of strings at the DKDM, wrote: ‘Alexandre was an outstanding violinist who always grabbed the audience’s attention with his personality and his captivating musicality.
‘He worked tirelessly and with great educational knowledge to raise the standard of Danish violinists, and a constellation of young violinists of the very highest level who have been taught by him testifies to the significance he has had for violin playing and for musical life in Denmark.’
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