Mario Hossen

MARIO HOSSEN is an Austrian-Bulgarian violinist of international acclaim who has performed in over 40 countries. He has been a soloist with some of the most renowned orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, English Chamber Orchestra, Bruckner Orchestra – Linz, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Radio, Orchestra of La Scala, Slovenian Symphony Orchestra, the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Sofia Soloists Chamber Ensemble. Hossen is an honorary professor of violin at New Bulgarian University and a visiting professor in Japan with an outstanding teaching career and students who have won high honors in Europe and Asia. He made his debut as a soloist with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eight. He studied in Sofia, Vienna and Paris. He has lived in Vienna since 1991, obtaining Austrian citizenship in 1993. While studying at the Vienna Music Academy with Michael Frischenschlager, he was awarded a prize by the Austrian Ministry of Culture in recognition of his exceptional creative achievements. His teachers included Darina Dankova, Michael Frischenschlager and Gérard Poulet. He has won a number of prestigious awards. These include the Musician of the Year award, the Sofia City award, and the 2015 Radio FM Classic award. His discography comprises over 25 albums, including complete recordings of the violin concertos by Paganini, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Bruch, Paganini's quartets, and sonatas by Beethoven, Bach and Handel. He has also premiered unpublished works by Paganini, Rolla, Mercadante, Mozart and Tartini. He is particularly renowned for his performances of Paganini's Six Concertos and Twenty-Four Caprices, and Beethoven's Violin Sonatas. He recorded world premieres of Paganini's works for the Italian record label Dynamic. He is the editor and researcher of Paganini's complete works for violin and orchestra for Musikverlag Doblinger, one of the world's oldest music publishers, based in Vienna. Hossen has performed alongside many world-renowned artists, including Adrian Oetiker, Philippe Bernold, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Bruno Canino, Israel Yinon, Milena Mollova and Vladimir Fedoseyev. He founded the Orpheus International Academy and Music Festival, which is held annually in Vienna, and is its artistic director. He also directs the Concert Spirituel concert series as the artistic director, conductor and soloist of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. He founded the Paganini Ensemble - Vienna, which was declared an ambassador of the European Paganini Route initiative by Genoa and the European Commission in 2024. He also teaches masterclasses at the Paris Conservatoire, the Reina Sofia Royal Academy in Madrid and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (MDW). He is a jury member at prestigious international competitions including the Jascha Heifetz Competition in Vilnius, the Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna, the Ginette Neveu Competition in Avignon, the Tibor Varga Competition in Sion, the Tokyo Competition and the Odessa Competition. In recognition of his significant contribution to preserving Paganini's musical heritage, and as one of the foremost interpreters of his work, Mario Hossen has been awarded honorary membership of the Paganini Association in Genoa. Hossen plays a J. B. Guadagnini violin from 1749, which was provided to him by the Austrian National Bank. He is an artist for Thomastik-Infeld in Vienna (since 2008) and a brand ambassador for Peugeot in Bulgaria. Since 2019, he has been the artistic director of the Varna Summer International Music Festival, which won the European Festival Association's Audience Award for 2019/2020 and the Laureate Award.