“Wladimir Kossjanenko set alight the Erin Center with his Ciaccone!”
“Mr. Kossjanenko has developed into the very model of a modern Russian violist” – The Strad, London
„Mr. Kossjanenko performed his featured parts with exceptional cantabile beauty“- ConcertoNet, New York
„Hochkarätige musikalische Persönlichkeit“ – Landshuter Zeitung
„One of the best viola player I ever heard“ – Tribuna Lodzka
Russian born Austrian-Croatian violist Wladimir Kossjanenko began his musical education at age of five in Almaty, Kazakhstan. After graduation he continued his studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory where among his mentors for viola, chamber music and conducting were such music legends as I. Mousin, V. Stopichev and T. Fidler. While still a student he became a principal violist and assistant-conductor of the Leningrad Soloists chamber orchestra.
Following an invitation from the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and Claudio Abbado he came to Vienna, Austria. He earned his Master’s degree at the Vienna University for Music and Performing Arts with T. Kakuska and P. Ochsenhofer and continued his postgraduate studies with Michael Kugel at the Royal Conservatory in Ghent, Belgium.
Kossjanenko has worked with such renown musicians as Isaac Stern, Joel Krossnick (Julliard Quartet), Norbert Brainin (Amadeus Quartet), Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet), Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet), Milan Škampa (Smetana Quartet).
Prior to becoming a principal violist of the Graz Philharmonic and Graz Opera he appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic, Wiener Staatsoper and at the Salzburg Festival.
In 1997 he became a prize winner at the 6th International Lionel Tertis Viola Competition (England), and the Perrenoud Foundation Competition (Switzerland).
Wladimir Kossjanenko spent the next decade by touring worldwide and recording as a member of the Hugo Wolf String Quartet. He was awarded the European Cultural Prize for Chamber music in Paris and the “Pasticcio” Prize of the Austrian Radio.
For the past 25 years Wladimir Kossjanenko has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician performed over 600 concerts at most prestigious concert venues, including:
Carnegie Hall New York, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tonhalle Zürich, Konzerthaus Lucerne, Royal Albert & Wigmore Hall in London, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Berliner & Kölner Philharmonie, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Mariinsky Concert Hall in St.Petersburg, Herkules-Saal in Munich, Wiener Musikverein & Konzerthaus, Mozarteum in Salzburg, National Gallery of Art & Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., Los Angeles Center of Modern Art.
He also appeared at the festivals in Edinburgh, Trondheim, Colmar, Prague, Jerusalem, Dortmund, Schwetzingen, Geneva, Buenos Aires, Osaka, Havanna, “Cervantino” Mexico, “L’été musical dans la vallée du Lot”, “Schubertiade” Roskilde, “Schubertiade” Schwarzenberg, “Styriarte”, “Klangbogen” Vienna, “Carinthischer Sommer”, “Splitsko Ljeto”, “Stars of the White Nights” St. Petersburg.
He recorded numerous CDs with Vesna Podrug, Yuliya Gorenman, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Xavier Phillips, Igor Malinovsky, Edin Karamazov and Hugo Wolf Quartet for labels “Gramola”, “Atlantis Art”, “Extraplatte”, “MiClaire Records“, “Lumaudis” and “Cam Jazz”.
He also participated in many TV productions for “Unitel Classic” Berlin, TV Ireland, KBS Korea, HRT Croatia and numerous recordings for BBC, Deutschland Radio Berlin, Süd-West-Funk Baden-Baden, Radio Suisse Romand Espace 2, Radio France Paris, ORF Austria, RAI Italy, Minnesota Public Radio, Radio of Japan, Israel Radio etc. His chamber music partners were Bruno Canino, Gérard Causée, Michael Kugel, Nicolas Angelich, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Mario Hossen, Paul Meyer, Petrit Ceku, Ensemble Wiener Collage, Ensemble XX. Century, Trio Altenberg and Trio Orlando, Tartini Quartet. At the International Waldzell Meetings – Austria he worked together with Paulo Coelho, Lilly Brett, Robert Menasse and Luc Bondy.
As a part of his commitment to contemporary music Wladimir Kossjanenko premiered new compositions by Friedrich Cerha, Johannes Maria Staud, Erich Urbanner, Zbigniew Bargielski, Otto Zykan, Ernst Leitner, Dirk D’Ase, Kenny Wheeler, Srečko Bradić, Zoran Novačić, Armand Toth, Šimun-Čarli Botica and many other contemporary composers.
He appeared as a soloist with Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, Zagreb Soloists, Jerusalem Festival Orchestra, Les Orpheistes Orchestra Sofia, Capella Lutherana Vienna, Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra, Zadar Chamber Orchestra, The Virtuosos of Split, Vienna Academic Symphony Orchestra etc. As a conductor he has appeared in Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Beside his active concert activities Wladimir Kossjanenko gave master classes for viola and chamber music in United Kingdom (University of St. Andrew, Guildhall School of Music and Drama London), Belgium (Royal Conservatory Bruxelles), Netherland (Royal Conservatory Maastricht), Hungary (Ferenc Liszt Music Academy), Japan (University of Sapporo), Austria (International Orpheus Academy Vienna), France (Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves , L’Université d’Eté Lions de la Musique), Greece (Thessaloniki State Conservatory), Slovenia (Academy of Music Ljubljana), Bulgaria (New Bulgarian University Sofia), Bosnia and Hercegovina (Music Academy Sarajevo) and Croatia (Academy of Arts University of Split, Upbeat Hvar, Korčula, Brač; Summer school Sinj, Elly Bašic College of Music Zagreb; Trogir Summer School).
He was a Jury-member of the Watson Forbes International Viola Competition in St Andrews / Scottland (2009) International Rudolf Matz Competition in Dubrovnik (2008, 2010, Cakovec 2013), and Boris Papandopulo Competition in Zagreb (2012, 2016, 2024).
Since 2008 he has been a professor of viola and chamber music at the Academy of Arts at the University of Split, Croatia while also collaborating with the Zagreb Soloists. Since 2022 Wladimir has been a professor for viola at the Music Academy in Sarajevo.
He is regulary invited as a principal violist to the Orchestra of the Royal Opera Liege, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Symphony Orchestra of Liechtenstein, Orchestra of the National Opera Rijeka, Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Together with a well-known Croatian pianist Vesna Podrug in 2012 he found the festival “Days of Bach in Split”, which is organized annually. European Festival Association Bruxelles recognised it as a “Remarkable Festival of Europe 2019-2021”.
In the same year he founded a chamber orchestra “The Virtuosos of Split” and become its conductor and artistic director. With this orchestra Kossjanenko has won admiration of the critics and audineces in Croatia and abroad.
In 2019 Wladimir was awarded the “Golden Gregory” Prize for his exceptional contribution to the musical life of the City of Split, Croatia.