Philip Ficsor

Violinist Philip Ficsor is an advocate of contemporary music who has both performed and written about the works of composer William Bolcom specifically. Ficsor is also a noted educator who has taught students from children to the university level. Ficsor was born on March 25, 1974, and took up the violin at age four, following the Suzuki Method. As a high school student, he lived in Hungary and studied violin at the Hans Richter Conservatory of Music in Györ; he learned to speak Hungarian fluently during this period. Back in the U.S., Ficsor attended the University of Michigan, studying with Stephen Shipps and earning a bachelor's degree; he went on to Yale University for a master's and to Boston University, where he earned a D.M.A. with a thesis on performance aspects of Bolcom's works for violin and piano. Ficsor made his recording debut in 2004 with pianist Constantine Finehouse, recording a program of sonatas by Beethoven, Ravel, and Brahms. Three years later, for Albany Music, he and Finehouse recorded Bolcom's complete piano works as part of that label's Bolcom Project. From 2006 to 2013, Ficsor was on the faculty of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, reaching the rank of tenured associate professor. He has continued his activities as an educator, which have included appearing with Bolcom at Symphony Hall in Boston before an audience of 1,500 schoolchildren; he has also engaged in outreach activities at various private schools, and he offers private lessons in the Denver, Colorado, area, where he lives. Ficsor has appeared at the Holland Music Festival in the Netherlands and the Semmering Festival in Austria and has performed at the U.S. Music Educators National Conference. Ficsor and Finehouse returned to the recording studio in 2021, joining hornist Steven Gross for an album featuring Bolcom's Trio for horn, violin, and piano; Ficsor was also heard playing Bolcom's Suite No. 2 for solo violin.
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