Amir Safavi

Amir Safavi (born January 25, 1992) is a Canadian award winning violinist who has performed as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout Canada and the United States, appearing in venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, and Glenn Gould Studio. Currently, Safavi is an honorary scholarship student at Columbia University in New York City. As a recipient of the Robert E. Dolan Prize, Safavi is studying with Catherine Cho of the Juilliard School
Biography
As a soloist, Safavi has performed with numerous orchestras including the Guelph Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Sinfonietta, Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Orchestra, Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, Koffler Centre of the Arts Chamber Orchestra, Columbia University Orchestra, University of Toronto Hart House Orchestra, Academy Symphony Orchestra of The Glenn Gould School, and with members of the Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn under renowned conductor Ruben Gazarian.
Safavi has performed chamber music with celebrated artists such as Menahem Pressler, Jacques Israelievitch, Daedalus Quartet, and members of the Vienna Piano Trio. His performance with Pressler as an artist-fellow of the Toronto Summer Music Festival was hailed as "an extraordinary demonstration of cross-generational togetherness" (National Post). Safavi has coached with members of the Guarneri Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, Beaux Arts Trio, St. Lawrence Quartet, and Mendelssohn Quartet as well as Pinchas Zukerman and Jaime Laredo.
Safavi is an avid performer and composer of contemporary music. He has appeared frequently in the Soundstreams Canada Concert Series, and was chosen by Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney to perform in the gala concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of the series. Safavi has performed the world premiere of "Lest we Forget" for Solo Violin and Chamber Orchestra written by Ronald Royer. Safavi’s compositions have been performed by artists such as Orli Shaham and the Amici Chamber Ensemble. His composition Medea for Solo Violin was awarded Columbia University’s 2011 Core Scholar Award.
A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music (ARCT), Safavi received the Gold Medal for obtaining the highest mark on the Performance Diploma in Canada. He is an alumnus of the Young Artists Performance Academy of the The Glenn Gould School, where he served as concertmaster of the Academy Symphony Orchestra, won the Academy Concerto Competition and received numerous scholarships. While at the Academy, he studied violin with Paul Kantor and Jacques Israelievitch. In the summer, he has studied with Pinchas Zukerman at the National Arts Centre’s Young Artist Programme. As well, he has performed in masterclass for Midori Goto, Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Peter Oundjian, Andrés Cárdenes, Mauricio Fuks and Victor Danchenko.
As a freshman at Columbia University, he was chosen as Concertmaster of the Columbia University Orchestra, won the University Concerto Competition, and was awarded the Music Department’s Robert E. Dolan Prize and Rapaport Summer Music Performance Fellowship.
He previously attended the University of Toronto Schools.

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