Violin
Mario Hossen is an Austro-Bulgarian soloist, considered as one of the leading interpreters of Paganini’s Music. As a soloist of international acclaim, Mario has performed with renowned orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Orchestra della Scala di Milano, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Hailed for his incredible virtuosity and charismatic stage presence, he plays a repertoire all the way from Renaissance to Classical music and to contemporary works and Jazz. Together with music by leading last centuries composers, he performs and promotes the works of the great Bulgarian composers Pancho Vladigerov, Marin Goleminov and Peter Christoskov.
Hossen was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. His mother, Nelly Batchvarova, was an opera singer and his father was a lawyer and diplomat. His ancestry is a blend of four nationalities. He has been living in Vienna since 1991, and in 1995 received Austrian citizenship in the special interest of the Republic.
Mario Hossen holds several prestigious Awards, among them the City of Sofia, Musician of the Year award. The oldest Bulgarian Music Festival the “Varna Summer International Music festival”(1926), under Prof. Mario Hossen as Artistic Director, was the European Festival Association (EFA), EFFE laureate for the 2019-2020-season and the winner of the European Audience Award.
Mario received his education in Sofia, Vienna and Paris. He had his debut as a soloist with orchestra at the age of eight. At the early age of 3 years, he asked for a violin, at 5 he started to play piano, at 6 he began his violin studies in Plovdiv with his first teacher Atanas Batchvarov. Later he entered the Music High School (class of Darina Dankova). He studied with Michael Frischenschlager (former student of Menuhin) at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and with the established French violinist Gérard Poulet (student of H. Szeryng) in Paris. When he was 17, Mario Hossen performed all 24 of Paganini’s Capricci and the first Violin Concerto with the major Bulgarian Orchestras. Since then, he has given concerts in prestigious international halls of more than 35 countries.
He has a huge repertoire and many composers such as Rainer Bischof, Tomas Marco, Francois-Pierre Descamps, Walter Baer, Alessandro Solbiatti and Georgi Arnaoudov wrote violin concertos and pieces for him. Hossen has also participated in a number of non-classical productions with Jazz-, Tango- and Rockmusic groups.
He dives deep into every piece, considering the musical historical context and the greatest possible authenticity. Hossen‘s musicological and artistic endeavors are focused among other things on source research on Niccolò Paganini. The complete oeuvre of Paganini for solo violin and for violin with orchestra are available as a historical-critical edition by Doblinger’s “Diletto Musicale” Music Series-Vienna.
Hossen is a prolific recording artist. Several acclaimed albums with the world première recordings of the most famous pieces of Paganini in their original version were edited by the leading Italian CD Label „Dynamic“ Genova. The 19 feature albums for Doron Music Switzerland and Dynamic have all received international recognition and are distributed by Naxos in more than 70 countries. In 2019, Mario Hossen has accepted the proposal for the recording of the complete Quartets and chamber music works by Paganini and founded the “PAGANINI ENSEMBLE VIENNA”.
His most recent recording releases include Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas, the Paganini I and Bruch II violin concertos and the sonatas for violin and harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, recorded together with Piero Barbareschi.
Mario Hossen shares a long-standing chamber music partnership with the pianist Adrian Oetiker. In the current season, both musicians present Recitals with the complete Brahms violin sonatas in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and in the Vienna Konzerthaus. Highlights are the concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the concert cycles in Vienna, Madrid, Barcelona, Sofia and Varna with the Paganini Ensemble Vienna.
As a conducting soloist1, he leads the Vienna Chamber Orchestra in the concert series “Concert Spirituel” in Vienna.
Mario Hossen plays a G.B. Guadagnini Violin (1749), which is loaned to him by the Austrian National Bank. He plays all concerts exclusively on his preferred “Thomastik-Infeld” Titanium Solo strings.