Paganini Caprice No. 11 | Olga Kossovich plays the 'Harrison' Stradivari violin, 1693

Enjoy the rarely heard 1693 'Harrison' Stradivari violin, played by Olga Kossovich, using the notorious Niccolò Paganini 'Il Cannone' violin bow, made by Nicolas Léonard Tourte, Paris (1790). According to Kossovich's research, this bow was considered the world's most dangerous musical instrument from about 1790-1840.
Recorded September 20, 2024, in the Janet Lucille Wanzek Performance Hall at the National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota.
Performer | Olga Kossovich
Dr. Olga Kossovich was trained as a concert violinist starting at age four and entered the Central Music School at the Moscow State Conservatory at age seven. While studying at this school, she performed in concerts across Russia and abroad and participated in several competitions, including the Union des Femmes Artistes Musiciennes Concours de Musique, Paris, France, in 2005 and 2006. She is the winner of the third prize in the Demidov International Youth Violin Competition in Yekaterinburg, Russia (2009) and the XVII Togliatti International Competition for Musicians (2012). In 2013, she graduated from the Central Music School and entered the Moscow Conservatory. During her time at the Conservatory, she participated in the III Savely Orlov International Music Competition Festival (Samara, Russia, 2015, II prize) and the First Rudolf Gummert International Young Performers Competition (Kazan, Russia, 2017, II prize). In 2024, she graduated from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music with a Doctor of Musical Arts in violin performance. She is the Musical Director of Buffalo Commons Music. In 2023, she became the first violinist since Niccolò Paganini to perform with the Paganini Tourte violin bow, the world’s most dangerous musical instrument.