Gilles Apap

With his quartet ‘The Colors of Invention’ (violin, accordion, double bass and cimbalom), Gilles presents chamber music with fusion of classical pieces from Vivaldi, Ravel and Bartok with traditional folk tunes. The Ethno Jazz band ‘Meduoteran’ (violin, accordion and saz) is one of the most recent projects in which Gilles is involved, performing in various Jazz and folk festivals around Europe. ‘The Transylvanian Mountain Boys’ is another highly successful crossover band formed by Gilles, together they perform across the globe and have released 3 CDs for Sony Classical. Gilles was taking the artistic leadership position at the Nordic Chamber Orchestra until the 2017/2018 season. After participating in the International Menuhin Competition in 1985, Gilles established a lifelong relationship with Yehudi Menuhin. Together they worked on Gilles’ legendary cadenza of Mozart’s Third Violin Concerto, which was filmed and directed by Bruno Monsaingeon. Known for his documentaries about Gould, Richter and Oistrakh, Monsaingeon directed two further films about Gilles Apap and his approach to music, and declared that the violinist’s “art represents music in its greatest possible purity.” As a soloist Gilles has performed with orchestras such as Leipzig Gewandhaus, San Francisco and Vancouver Symphony, Hamburg Philharmonic, Boston Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, Russian National Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, often play directing as well as performing an extensive list of violin concertos and festivals such as Le Printemps du Violon, Pietrasanta in Concerto.