Lev Loiko
© Barbara Aumüller
Lev Loiko was born in 1991 in Ivanovo and grew up in a family of Russian chemists. His talent for music was spotted in Kindergarten by Naelya Chistyakova, who gave him his first violin lesson when he was five. After eight years he started experimenting with the viola and, aged 14, started attending the Mussorgsky University for Music in St. Petersburg. He won an Art and Culture scholarship in 2010, enabling him to continue his studies in St. Petersburg and Moscow before joining the Hanns Eisler University for Music in Berlin, working with Julia Gartemann and, from 2016, Tabea Zimmermann. He drew further inspiration from Eberhard Feltz and in masterclasses held by people including Yuri Bashmet, Tatjana Masurenko and Wilfried Strehle. He was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic's Karajan Academy from 2017 - 2019, taught by Naoko Shimizu, who instilled a love of orchestral music in him. He gained his masters with the help of Wilfried Strehl at the University for Arts in Berlin while intensifying his orchestral and chamber music experience playing with the Berlin Philharmonic at venues including Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Royal Festival Hall in London, the Musikverein in Vienna and Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. He was also invited to play at renowned festivals including the Zermatt Music Festival, the Prague Spring Festival, the Baden-Baden Easter Festival and Heidelberg Spring Festival. He joined the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for the 2022/23 season and has been playing deputy solo viola with the Frankfurt Oper and Museumsorchester since 2023. In his free time he enjoys teaching, reading and delving into history. He gave masterclasses at the Gnessin Academy for Music in Moscow in 2020 and 2021 and has been teaching the viola section of the Neue Philharmonie in Munich since 2023.