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October 2024 – please do not use outdated versions –
“Kolly's electrifying intensity and deep involvement with the emotional narrative of each piece makes an indelible impact and feels like a throwback to a golden age when making music felt like an act of celebration. Her hypnotic performance is a triumph of interpretative incandescence as she weaves in and out of the music’s surging textures.”
Julian Haylock, Strad
PORTRAIT
October 2024 – please do not use outdated versions –
“Kolly's electrifying intensity and deep involvement with the emotional narrative of each piece makes an indelible impact and feels like a throwback to a golden age when making music felt like an act of celebration. Her hypnotic performance is a triumph of interpretative incandescence as she weaves in and out of the music’s surging textures.”
Julian Haylock, Strad
The best Swiss soloist in a century! With Rachel, we can finally hope Swiss artists will play a major role on the international stages. It has been quite quiet, recently..."
K. Luhers-Kaiser - Sonntagzeitung
Considered by many the best Swiss soloist (Sonntagzeitung, Pizzicato, Diapason, Gramophone, NZZ, Fanfare), Rachel Kolly received the Cultural Prize 2017 from the canton of Vaud in recognition of her career and international influence.
Rachel began playing the violin when she was five years old and made her debut as a soloist at the age of 12. She is considered one of the most talented Swiss musicians of her generation with a quality of vibrato that has been compared to great violinists of the past. Revered for her passion and temperament coupled with innate musicianship and a kaleidoscope of colour, Rachel has remained in the spotlight in the music world in Europe and around the world for many years. Signed to Warner Classics, Rachel gained international attention with her recording, Passion Ysaÿe, then enjoyed great success with her first concerto recording, French Impressions, being voted Recording of the Year 2012 by ICMA. Her second concerto recording, American Serenade, was nominated for the same award in 2013.
Rachel plays with prestigious orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Seville Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI of Torino and the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln. She has also been invited to play with such famous orchestras as Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Orchestra della Toscana (“in Bernstein’s Serenade, Rachel Kolly drew every possible lyrical quality from a cerebral and slightly complex score with a sound rich in colours and expressive intensity. It was an incredible performance greeted by huge applause”—Giuseppe Rossi, Quotidiano Nazionale), Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, Milan Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Symphonic Orchestra, Nürenberg Symphonic Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Orchestra, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Malaga Symphony Orchestra, Verona Arena Orchestra, and Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra. Rachel is a regular guest at festivals around the world, once playing Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 for an audience of 50,000 at Violon sur le Sable in Royan, France.
Rachel Kolly has won every major Swiss award including the Swiss Paderewski Prize in 1997, 1st Prize in the Execution Musicale 'Young Talents' of 1998, the Kiefer Hablitzel Music Prize in 2000, the Fridl-Wald Foundation Award in 2002, and the Leenaards Foundation Prize in 2004. She won the 2005 Fifth International Competition ‘Julio Cardona' where she also received the prize for Best Interpretation of a Contemporary Work. Rachel’s recorded works have won her further accolades, including the outstanding Supersonic Award (Pizzicato magazine) and an ICMA Award.
Rachel loves the recording studio. Her career has developed around her discography which showcases her passions and the repertoires she likes to explore. For example, her 2015 album of chamber music Fin de Siècle (Aparté/Harmonia Mundi), recorded with Christian Chamorel on piano and the Spektral Quartet of Chicago, features sublime works by Franck and Chausson that transport the listener from agony to ecstasy. The album was first presented at Wigmore Hall in London, followed by an extensive Irish tour, then a tour of Europe and North and Central America. In 2017, Rachel released Lyrical Journey, presenting rare masterpieces by Richard Strauss and Guillaume Lekeu, composed around the same time. This album received accolades from the international press and was once again nominated for an ICMA Award for best album of the year. It received a Supersonic Award, as well as Diapason magazine's top marks in their review. After four years of work, Rachel’s next album Bach Partitas was released in 2020 to great acclaim and was recognised as Album of the Month by the revered Japanese newspaper Record Geijutsu. Following an extensive promotional tour performing Bach, Rachel released her latest recording, Brahms Violin Sonatas in 2024. The three sonatas received glowing reviews: "Kolly and Chamorel take me back to the music’s fundamental elements" (Gramophone); "a vision of rare poetry, imbued with a supple, elegant lyricism. A supreme rendition" (Classica).
A keen and active supporter of the underprivileged around the world, Rachel Kolly is an Ambassador for Handicap International. She undertook her first mission for the charity in Cambodia in February 2013. Since then, she has given concerts and lectures for the organisation. Separately, Rachel worked for several years with an aid program to teach and play with youth orchestras in South America that perform with recycled instruments. She was awarded honorary citizenship of Paraguay in recognition of her contribution to youth and culture in that country.
Rachel plays a magnificent Stradivarius violin built in 1732.
Rachel's 2024/25 season includes performances of violin concertos by Mendelssohn, Bach, Brahms, Bruch and Beethoven, and the rare but superb violin concerto by Hermann Suter which she will record and release in 2025.
Rachel has earned two Master’s degrees in Pedagogy and Performance and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Bern, Switzerland, researching historically informed performances.
www.rachelkolly.com