Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, known affectionately as PatKop, is experimental, unpredictable and brilliant. For her, music is alive and made in the moment, and as an acclaimed soloist, reinventive director and ground-breaking composer, she creates an ephemeral magic that can never be replicated.
Her focus is to get to the heart of the music, to its meaning for us – now and here.
With a combination of depth, brilliance and humour, she’s a violinist who brings an inimitable sense of theatrics to her music. Her distinctive approach always conveys the core of the work, whether it is with an out-of-the-box performance of a violin repertoire classic or with an original staged projection she presents as experimental performance dramaturge.
She directs the Australian Chamber Orchestra in music by Schubert and Ravel – alongside her own compositions – in June 2025.
Who is Patricia Kopatchinskaja?
Patricia Kopatchinskaja is a virtuoso violinist from Moldova, famous for the incredible virtuosity, expressiveness and originality of her playing.
She was born in the city of Chișinău in Moldova, to musical parents – violinist Emilia Kopatchinskaja and cimbalom player Viktor Kopatchinsky – and began learning the violin when she was just six years old. She studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and the Musikhochschule in Bern in Switzerland.
She plays on an 1834 violin by Turin maker, Giovanni Francesco Pressenda.
Her emphasis on fleeing the shackles of standard repertoire
She has made it her priority to perform and promote the music of 20th- and 21st-century composers, and has collaborated with the likes of Francisco Coll, Luca Francesconi, Michael Hersch, Márton Illés, György Kurtág, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Aureliano Cattaneo and Stefano Gervasoni.
“Standard pieces should be used only as exceptional, rare elements in programmes. There are enough recordings out there already,” the violinist says. “The classical music industry is so far behind. If someone does anything that’s even just a tiny bit different, it becomes a huge, heated discussion.”
“A player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition.”The New York Times
In the Name of Peace
In 2024, when Kopatchinskaja made her debut as Artistic Partner of SWR Symphony Orchestra in Germany, she presented Im Namen des Friedens (In The Name of Peace), an innovative staged concert that aims to examine and reflect the brutal realities of war through music.
It goes beyond tradition concert formats, spanning from Baroque to modern works and adding PatKop’s distinctive theatrical and interdisciplinary approach.
“I wanted to understand what it’s like to imagine the concert hall as a bunker, where we seek shelter while the world outside collapses,” Kopatchinskaja says of the affecting work. “What is it like when you don’t know what’s coming, when you don’t know how long death will wait, when you can’t protect yourself? Can music have meaning when you are fighting for your life?”
“Constantly characterised (and slightly demeaned) as a “quirky maverick”, Kopatchinskaja proved here that she’s in a class of her own.”Richard Morrison, The Times
PatKop's Compositions
Kopatchinskaja has always composed alongside performing. Her recent pieces of music are published by Birdsong and have been performed by established soloists, including cellist Sol Gabetta, violinist Vilde Frang, cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, and the Trio Gaspard.
She performs and directs the Australian Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of her brand new original work, Dance Macabre, in the ACO 2025 Season.
“I am very excited about the return of our dear friend PatKop. She is a phenomenal musician and violinist and I know there will be much spontaneity and excitement playing with her! Never a dull moment.”ACO Principal Violin Helena Rathbone
Returning to the ACO family
Patricia Kopatchinskaja has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra previously, and many of our musicians have been eagerly awaiting her return to Australia.
“I’m excited to welcome the phenomenal PatKop back to the ACO, as her infectious sparkle is such a wonderful match for the orchestra,” ACO Violin Ike See says. “I’m looking forward to revisiting a work we know and love, Schubert’s Death and the Maiden.”
ACO Principal Violin Helena Rathbone agrees: She is a phenomenal musician and violinist and I know there will be much spontaneity and excitement playing with her! Never a dull moment…”.
Our Schubert odyssey directed by Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Death and the Maiden Revealed, tours to Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane, 21 Jun – 2 Jul. Click here to get tickets in your nearest city.
