Alexander Barantschik (born 1953) joined the San Francisco Symphony as Concertmaster in September 2001, having served as Concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic.
Born in St. Petersburg, after training at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, he performed with various Soviet orchestras, including the St Petersburg Philharmonic, before emigrating in 1979 to become concertmaster of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. He was concertmaster of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic from 1982–2001 and leader of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1989-2001. He moved to the United States in 2001 at the request of San Francisco Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas.
Barantschik has won various competitions, including the International Violin Competition in Sion, Switzerland, and the Russian National Violin Competition. As a chamber musician, he has performed with Mstislav Rostropovich, Maxim Vengerov, and Yuri Bashmet.
He performs on the c.1742 Guarnerius del Gesù violin that was once owned by Ferdinand David, and Jascha Heifetz. Barantschik has used the instrument in performances with the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Academy Orchestra.
Gil Shaham is an American violinist. His accolades include a Grammy Award in 1999, and he has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the Orchestre de Paris.
ZinoVinnikov is a Russian-Dutch violinist and one of the leading representatives of the St Petersburg violin tradition.
Viktor Viktorovich Tretiakov is a Russian violinist and conductor. Other spellings of his name are Victor, Tretyakov and Tretjakov.
Alan Brind is an English violinist. He performed as a soloist for several years after winning the 1986 BBC Young Musician of the Year at the age of 17. He has since performed in many of the world's leading chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras.
Glenn Dicterow is an American violinist and former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He is on the faculty of the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music where he holds the Jascha Heifetz Chair in violin as well as serving as a faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West.
Frank Xin Huang is a Chinese-born American violinist and teacher. Since 2015 he has been the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. Previous to his position in New York, Huang was the first violinist of the Ying Quartet and a professor of violin and chamber music at the Eastman School of Music, then served as the concertmaster of the Houston Symphony from 2010 to 2015. He has won several international music competitions, most notably the 2003 Naumburg Competition. Huang has concertized widely as a soloist, and his debut recording on Naxos was critically acclaimed.
Vladimir Koh is a Serbian violinist and university professor.
Boris Davidovich Belkin is a Soviet-born violin virtuoso.
Oksana Pečeny is a Ukrainian violinist.
Oscar Ravina, born in Warsaw, Poland, was a violinist, violin teacher and concertmaster based in New York, who has had a prolific career as a performer as well as being a current professor emeritus at Montclair State University, where a talent grant in his name is regularly given to outstanding full-time freshmen studying string instruments.
Quartet San Francisco is a non-traditional and eclectic string quartet led by violinist Jeremy Cohen. The group played their first concert in 2001 and has recorded five albums. Playing a wide range of music genres including jazz, blues, tango, swing, funk, and pop, the group challenges the traditional classical music foundation of the string quartet.
William (Bill) Barbini is an American violinist. He took his diploma from Juilliard School in 1970, studying with Ivan Galamian among others. He thereafter became one of the youngest members selected to the New York Philharmonic violin section. During his tenure with the NY Philharmonic, Barbini also performed as principal violinist with the Gramercy String Quartet. With Barbini as principal, the Gramercy was commissioned by Pierre Boulez for a number of pre-concert performances at Avery Fisher Hall. While in New York, Barbini also served as concertmaster for the Joffrey Ballet and soloist with the Festival Orchestra at the Norwalk Performing Arts Festival.
Nancy Zhou is a Chinese-American classical violinist. She has performed as a soloist in recital and with orchestras throughout the world. Zhou has been a prizewinner in several major competitions, including first prizes in the 2018 Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition and the 2018 International Music Competition Harbin.
Gilbert Varga is a British-Hungarian conductor. Studied violin from the age of four with his father, Tibor Varga, a famous Hungarian violinist and conductor. After an accident brought an abrupt halt to a promising solo career Gilbert studied conducting under Franco Ferrara, Sergiu Celibidache and Charles Bruck.
Jela Špitková is a Slovak/Austrian violinist. Spitková is an international concert performer, a role she combines with that of teacher at Vienna Music University, the Banská Bystrica Fine Arts Faculty, “Akademia Umeni Banská Bystrica" and the Academy of Music in Prague. She has recorded more than 900 minutes of music including 30 violin concertos and has global appeal.
Daishin Kashimoto is a Japanese classical violinist. Since 2009, he has been the first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Noah Bendix-Balgley is an American classical violinist. He is currently First Concertmaster with the Berliner Philharmoniker. He served as concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 2011 to 2014.
Nikki Chooi is an American-Canadian classical violinist. Chooi is currently concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He previously served as concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. He is a prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition and Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition and first-prize winner of the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Montreal Symphony Manulife Competition, and Klein International Strings Competition.
Nadezda Tokareva is a Russian-Slovenian classical violinist and teacher, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Wolfgang Marschner was a German violinist, teacher of violin, composer and conductor. He was concertmaster of the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, and instrumental in world premieres of contemporary music. He was professor at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen, the Musikhochschule Köln, the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music and, for more than three decades, at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. He also taught at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.