Alexandre Da Costa

A case for classical music

TEDxPerth 2016
October 2016

Talk length:

17:54

A case for classical music (and a Stradivarius violin) | Alexandre Da Costa | TEDxPerth

Alexandre Da Costa is both a music educator and a virtuoso violinist. He argues passionately for the importance of the arts, particularly classical music, and believes that music education is key to both personal and societal enlightenment. In this talk, he performs Stradivari all'opera: Finale using his 1727 "Di Barbaro" Stradivarius and a Sartory bow. He is backed by his masters students from the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts.

Alexandre is Head of Strings and Associate Professor at the Edith Cowan University, Musical Development Director of the Canimex Foundation, and Artistic Director of the Laurentians Classical Festival of Canada. At age 18, he obtained a Master’s Degree in violin and went on to study with Zakhar Bron. In 2010, he received the prestigious Virginia-Parker Prize, one of Canada’s highest cultural distinctions.

Alexandre Da Costa
Violin Virtuoso

The role of a performer and artist in today’s society.

In 1998, at age 18, Alexandre Da Costa obtained a Master’s Degree in violin and went on to study with Zakhar Bron in Europe. In2010, he received the prestigious Virginia-Parker Prize, one of Canada’s highest cultural distinctions.

Winner of many national and international first prizes, Alexandre DaCosta has been guest soloist for nearly two thousand concerts and recitals throughout the Americas, Europe, Oceania and Asia. He has performed in major halls such as Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Philharmonie, New York's Carnegie Hall, and played with prestigious orchestras such as the London Royal Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, the Berlin Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, the Prague Philharmonic and the Toronto Symphony. He has worked with conductors such as Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Leonard Slatkin, Matthias Bamert, VasilyPetrenko and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Among Da Costa's chamber music colleagues have been Menahem Pressler and Elizabeth Leonskaya.

As a recording artist, he has more than 20 solo Cds, among them, hisJUNO award winner recording of the concertos by American composer Michael Daugherty, with the Montreal Symphony under Pedro Halffter for Warner Classics. He now records for Spectra and SONY Classical.

Alexandre Da Costa is also Head of Strings and Associate Professor at the Edith Cowan University, Musical Development Director of the Canimex Foundation, and Artistic Director of the Laurentians Classical Festival of Canada.

Alexandre Da Costa now plays the "Di Barbaro" Stradivarius of 1727 and a Sartory bow, loaned by Canimex.