Alexis Cardenas is a
Venezuelan violinist, teacher, arranger, and composer born (in Maracaibo,
Venezuela) on March 24, 1976. (Maracaibo
is in northwest Venezuela, about 300 miles west of Caracas, the capital of
Venezuela.) He is one of Venezuela’s
leading violinists and is well known for doing a lot of crossover work with one
group known as Recoveco. Here is an
audio file of a studio recording which is typical of their style. Cardenas is a leading exponent of Venezuelan
folk music, although his formal training is entirely in (and from) the classical
realm. His arrangements of traditional Latin
American folk music incorporate classical music, often including direct quotes,
especially of Bach violin sonatas. For
the past 25 years, his home base has been Paris, France, where he is
co-concertmaster of the Orchestre National d'Île-de-France (National Orchestra
of the Isle of France or National Orchestra of the Region of France, an area
which is made up of eight districts immediately surrounding Paris.) The orchestra was established in 1974 and
serves a population of approximately twelve million people. Its main venue is the Philharmonie de
Paris. Here is a YouTube video of the
orchestra performing a theatrical piece for narrator and orchestra, Ondin and
the Little Mermaid (Ondin et la Petit Sirène.)
Here is another featuring a rather unique presentation of two
Tchaikovsky works. Another unique
performance - this time of a Scarlatti Sonata - is here – it is reminiscent of
what Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto sometimes does in some of his
performances. Cardenas began his violin
studies at age 9 in Maracaibo. Among his
first teachers was Jose Baldaen. He made
his public debut at age 12 (one source says age 11) with the Maracaibo
Symphony, playing the Mendelssohn concerto (the one in e minor.) A year later (1989), he soloed with the
Tchaikovsky concerto, but I don’t know with what orchestra. He began his studies at the Juilliard school
in New York in 1990. (One source says he
left for New York in 1992.) His teacher
there was Margaret Pardee – many young violinists from Venezuela studied with
Pardee. Three years later, at age 15, Cardenas
returned to Venezuela and was appointed concertmaster of the National
Philharmonic. He was also a guest
soloist with every major orchestra in Venezuela during this time. At age 17 (1995) he left Venezuela for Paris where
he enrolled at the National Conservatory for Music and Dance. His teacher there was Olivier Charlier but he
also studied with Jean Kantorow and Roland Dugareuil later on. He entered his first violin competition
(Tibor Varga in Switzerland) in 1997. He
has concertized in Europe, Russia, Canada, and South America, working with
well-known conductors, including Pavel Kogan, Alondra de la Parra, Pablo
Ziegler, and Gustavo Dudamel. I do not
know if he has ever toured the U.S. He
has won silver and bronze medals in various violin competitions, including the
Paganini violin competition in Genoa in 2002 and Montreal violin competition in
2003. His best-known studio recording is
“Stories Without Words” which is easily found on the internet. Cardenas is currently composing a violin
concerto which will incorporate non-traditional instruments (mostly from
Caribbean countries and South America) in a symphonic score. It should be completed within the next
year. He has stated that his motivation
is his enormous curiosity. I do not know
what violin he plays.
