Encores

Oliver Colbentson, a native of Chicago, began playing the violin at age 5. At age 16 he won the Chicago Musical College Competition and performed the Wieniawski violin concert with orchestra in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. Colbentson graduated from the University of Chicago at age 18, then enlisted in the United States Air Force, serving until his honorary discharge at age 21. He embarked on his first European concert tour, and performed his first recital in New York at Times Hall the same year. The following year he recorded the Kreutzer Sonata and Debussy Sonata for Concert Hall Records. Colbentson's series of seven articles, explaining the theories of his teacher Diran Alexanian: “The Alexanian Conception of Music and Technic,” appeared in “Symphony Magazine.” At age 24, after a Town Hall Recital, Colbentson was acclaimed "a major musician, an extraordinary artist" by the New York Herald Tribune. He subsequently soloed in concerts throughout the Midwest and Eastern U.S.A. From age 26 to 30 he was Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, also traveling annually on concert tours of Europe. At age 30 he resigned from the Metropolitan and took up residence in Germany. He became Concertmaster and Soloist with the Nürnberger Symphoniker, and later chaired the Strings Department at the Meistersinger Conservatory. He has performed over 1200 concerts and broadcasts in 29 countries, and recorded for Concert Hall, Colosseum, MGM, Sonopress (Paris), Ampex, Zafiro (Spain), Vienna Sound, and others. In recent years, Colbentson has returned to his native America annually to play a series of concerts.