Cecilia Zilliacus

Cecilia Zilliacus is among Sweden's leading violinists, collaborating with singer-songwriters as well as jazz and folk musicians and performing traditional repertory. She is frequently active as a member of the string trio ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen.

Zilliacus was born in Stockholm on September 22, 1972. She played the violin from childhood at the Kungsholmens Gymnasium and the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm, studying at the latter with Harald Thedéen. She had many lessons from Sven Karpe. Zilliacus also studied in Cologne, Germany, with Mihaela Martin and participated in master classes with Milan Vitek, Sylvia Rosenberg, and <a href="spotify:artist:37crzqlMU7x1sZk631tAmO">Franco Gulli</a>. A major breakthrough for Zilliacus was a win at the 1997 Royal Swedish Academy of Music Competition, followed quickly by a Soloist Prize at the Nordic Soloist Triennial in Trondheim, Norway. Zilliacus served as artist-in-residence for Sweden's public radio network in 1997 and 1998. In 1998, she released her debut album, Cecilia Zilliacus: Violin, on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Caprice%22">Caprice</a> label, and the following year, she co-founded ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen.

Zilliacus has performed with most of the major Swedish orchestras as well as other groups around Scandinavia and beyond, including the <a href="spotify:artist:1fhEh9FpKs42GFeqerlBUf">BBC National Orchestra of Wales</a>, the <a href="spotify:artist:3wnm0pkc0sPfV7UI2xlZlW">National Symphony Orchestra of Estonia</a>, and the Radio Symphony of the Netherlands. Her repertory is predominantly but not exclusively Scandinavian. Zilliacus is especially noted as a chamber music player, collaborating with such performers as violist <a href="spotify:artist:1B6o6047agS5j8XGaYC9tn">Lise Berthaud</a> and pianists <a href="spotify:artist:2GoPcJyOyFijJa1tbuOx5N">Bengt Forsberg</a> and Håvard Gimse, as well as her own trio. Both as a soloist and with ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen, she has stressed contemporary music, and composers who have written new works for her include <a href="spotify:artist:5yFyiRuJTD0qgV64fByLMg">Dai Fujikura</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:30lFlxaQCqMZjjlYSbxN3v">Mats Larsson Gothe</a>, and Fredrik Hedelin. Several of Zilliacus' recordings have won Swedish Grammis awards. She has recorded mostly for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22dB+Productions%22">dB Productions</a> label but has issued several albums on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22BIS%22">BIS</a>, including a collection of sonatas for violin and piano with pianist <a href="spotify:artist:4SCbWhexXPTAl0XN4EAmWF">Christian Ihle Hadland</a> in 2023. By that time, Zilliacus had released more than ten solo recordings, plus several more with ZilliacusPerssonRaitinen. Zilliacus is the artistic director of two Finnish chamber music festivals, Katrina Chamber Music on the culturally Swedish Åland archipelago and the Korsholm Music Festival in Vaasa. ~ James Manheim, Rovi