Conductor-violinist Leonidas Kavakos will be the Minnesota Orchestra’s principal guest conductor beginning in fall 2027. Within the three-year appointment, Kavakos will lead three weeks of subscription concerts each season, including conducting the Orchestra at least twice a season. He joins the likes of Leonard Slatkin, Klaus Tennstedt, and Charles Dutoit, all of whom have served in the role.
Kavakos made his performance debut with the Minnesota Orchestra in March 1995, playing the Stravinsky Violin Concerto. He returned over the next five years for 16 performances, before first conducting the ensemble in a May 2023 program featuring Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 and Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 1. His most recent appearance was last October.
“We are very happy to welcome Leonidas Kavakos into this new role,” said Music Director Thomas Søndergård. “He is an artist of great integrity and creativity who will bring conviction, passion and interesting projects to our Orchestra and audiences. I know he will contribute substantially to the musical vitality of the organization, and I’m looking forward to our first collaboration.” Søndergård will lead concerts with Kavakos appearing as violin soloist in May 2028.
“I am thrilled to be joining the Minnesota Orchestra as its principal guest conductor,” said Leonidas Kavakos. “As a young music student still forming a musical identity, I was deeply inspired by the Minnesota Orchestra’s recordings with the legendary Dimitri Mitropoulos. The Orchestra produces a sound of rare warmth and flexibility, an element that has impressed me since my debut as a soloist in the 1990s. Through the years, it has been my great pleasure to share the stage with its wonderful musicians in all of our performances together, including at Carnegie Hall.
“I first conducted the Orchestra in 2023 and the rehearsals and performances were pure joy. I felt an immediate chemistry with my colleagues, and together we’ve found the sense of expressive freedom that every musician aims for. As principal guest conductor, I am tremendously looking forward to working more in depth with this fantastic Orchestra and creating powerful musical experiences for the city of Minneapolis. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to Music Director Thomas Søndergård, President and CEO Isaac Thompson, and Vice President of Artistic Planning Erik Finley, for their trust and support in welcoming me into the Minnesota Orchestra family!”
Born in 1967 in Athens, Greece, into a musical family, Kavakos began learning the violin at age six from his father who was then a violinist in the State Orchestra of Athens. A graduate of the Hellenic Conservatory and Indiana University Bloomington, Leonidas studied with Stelios Kafantaris and Josef Gingold.
He has appeared with countless major orchestras worldwide as a violinist and conductor and participated in significant international festivals, such as Lucerne, Edinburgh, Salzburg, London’s PROMS, Hollywood Bowl, and Tanglewood.
In 2022, he founded the ApollΩn Ensemble, a chamber group of Greek musicians, and in 2025, he took over as the artistic director of the “Classic Revolution” Festival at Lotte Concert Hall, Seoul. Kavakos is also an artist in residence at the Dallas Symphony this season where he will appear as both a soloist and conductor.
