Violin I
Bassam Nashawati’s performance has been described as “displaying the stamina of an athlete” while playing what one critic describes as the “mother of all violin concertos” Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D in the 1998 United States debut of the Syrian National Orchestra at UCLA’s Royce Hall.
Born in Damascus Syria, Mr. Nashawati began playing the violin at the age of seven. After graduating from the Arab Institute of Music, he immigrated to the United States to pursue his musical studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and earned a Bachelor’s degree studying with the late Isadore Tinkleman. Mr. Nashawati continued his musical education with renowned professor Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he earned both a Master’s and Professional Studies degrees.
Mr. Nashawati has performed at numerous Music Festivals as a soloist and a First Violinist with The National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado, as a First Violinist with the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, and as a First Violinist at the Kent Blossom Music Festival in Ohio. He performed under the batons of Michael Tilson Thomas, Carl Topilow and Jahja Ling before joining the New World Symphony in 1996 as Principal Second and later as Concertmaster.
Mr. Nashawati joined the San Antonio Symphony as a First Violinist in 1999 and is on the faculty as a Violin Professor at St. Philip's College. Since that time he has been active performing locally in recitals, chamber music, and teaching. He returned to his native Damascus in 2005 to perform the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor as a soloist with the Syrian National Orchestra.
In 2004 and 2005 he toured with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra led by world-renowned conductor/pianist Daniel Barenboim as Associate Concertmaster and Principal Second Violin. While touring with West Eastern Divan Orchestra he played to sold out audiences in Spain, Vienna, Switzerland, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Scotland, and in live televised broadcasts from England at the Royal Albert Hall, and most notably in Ramallah, Palestine. The journey to the performance and the concert in Ramallah was recorded and appears on the DVD documentary film entitled: The Ramallah Concert; Knowledge is the Beginning – West Eastern Divan Orchestra; Daniel Barenboim. Mr. Nashawati will rejoin the West Eastern Divan Orchestra in December of 2006 to perform at Carnegie Hall and also at the United Nations in a farewell concert in honor of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
