Alexis Cardenas

Violinist Alexis Cárdenas is highly visible both in his native Venezuela and in France, where he was partly trained. In addition to classical works, he also pursues classical-folk fusions. Cárdenas was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on March 24, 1976. He took up the violin at age nine, and by 12, he had made such progress that he was able to play the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, with the Maracaibo Symphony Orchestra, and as a teen, he played the still more challenging Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35. Cárdenas moved to New York in the early '90s to attend the Juilliard School's pre-college division. He studied there with Margaret Pardee, who also taught other young Venezuelan players. He returned to Venezuela and spent several years there performing with the country's major orchestras. In 1995, Cárdenas went on to the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMD), studying with Olivier Charlier and graduating with unanimously awarded first prize honors. He won a string of international competitions in the late '90s and early 2000s, including the Fritz Kreisler Competition in Austria and the Henryk Szeryng Competition in Mexico in 2000. He formed the Alexis Cárdenas Trio, and with that group, he released his debut album, Fou rire, in 2005. He also appeared on a variety of releases by Venezuelan pop artists. Cárdenas has performed as a soloist with leading ensembles in Europe and the Americas, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela. He is the concertmaster at the Orchestre National d'Île de France, performing in Paris and other French cities. A notable feature of his career is that he is a performer and arranger of Venezuelan folk music, often with classical inflections. He has worked with the ensemble Recoveco and other groups. Cárdenas returned to the recording studio in 2024 with the Orchestre de Lutetia and conductor Alejandro Sandler on the album Alas, released on the Evidence Classics label.
© James Manheim /TiVo