Leila Schayegh belongs to the most visible violinists in the current baroque music scene.
Her vivacious interpretation has placed her at the center of old music. She performes all over the world as a soloist or in chamber music groups and is regularly invited by modern orchestras for concerts and masterclasses.
Leila Schayegh has developed a close collaboration with Jörg Halubek, cembalist, organist and director. Their 2016 recording of Bach’s six obligato sonatas was awarded numerous prizes (Diapason de l’année, Grammophone Award, Schallenplattpreis). Her collaboration with director and cembalist Vaclav Luks led to the recordings of Benda’s violin sonatas (Diapason d’Or 2011) and Mysliveček’s violin concertos in 2018. She’s been playing since 2008 with Gli Angéli Genève (directed by Stephan MacLeod), in particular for the almost complete series of Bach’s cantatas. She’s recently expended her repertoire towards the classical and romantic period, in particular with a recording of Brahms’s violin sonatas in 2018 with Jan Schultsz for the label Glossa. In 2020 she recorded Bach’s famous Sonatas and Partitas for the same label, and in 2022 the complete Leclair violin concertos with La Cetra Basel will be released.
Since 2010 she is professor of baroque violin at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, as successor of Chiara Banchini. She passes to a new generation of musician her experience as well as approach of music: an expressive interpretation based on thorough knowledge of the historical and musical context of the period where the works were composed.
Born in Winterthur (Switzerland), she finished in 1999 her studies in modern violin with Raphaël Oleg at the Basel Music Academy with Summa cum laude. After two years as a member of the Philharmonia Zurich, she joined the class of Chiara Banchini at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where she obtained in 2005 a diploma Summa cum laude. She was awarded in 2003 the first prizes of the Alte Musiktreff in Berlin, the Förderpreiswettbewerb der Konzertgesellschaft in München as well as Premio Bonporti in Rovereto, Italy.
