Following auditions last week, two Moldovan violinists join the orchestra from concertmaster roles elsewhere, in an appointment described as ‘double success’

cr Walter Voglmayr

Violinists Dumitru Pocitari and Kirill Maximov © Walter Voglmayr

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The Wiener Symphoniker has announced the appointment of two concertmasters - both Moldovan. They are violinists Dumitru Pocitari and Kirill Maximov, described by the orchestra as ’two musicians of international rank.’

Pocitari joins the Wiener Symphoniker from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, where he has been a member since 2014 and served as concertmaster since 2019. 

Between 2000-2012, he won numerous prizes and medals at international violin competitions in Romania, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine, as well as second prize at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music Competition (2012).

He has participated in master classes with Phillipe Bride, Bujor Prelipcean, Serban Lupu, Zakhar Bron, Julian Rachlin, Alexandra Soumm, Nikolaj Znaider and Pinchas Zukerman.

Maximov joins the Wiener Symphoniker having served as first concertmaster of the Tonkünstler Orchestra since 2017. 

From 2002 to 2003, he studied in Bordeaux with Robert Papavrami, and in 2017 he graduated with honors from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna under the tutelage of Dora Schwarzberg. He has attended masterclasses with Koichiro Harada, Marianne Piketty, Taras Gabora, Lothar Strauß, Igor Ozim, Hubert Kroisamer, and Krzysztof Węgrzyn.

He performs on the 1716 Antonio Stradivari ’ex-Baron Oppenheim’ violin on loan from the collection of the Austrian National Bank, as well as a violin made by Stephan von Baehr in 2021.

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