BIOGRAPHY
Rafailia Kapsokavadi was born in 1998 in Thessaloniki, Greece. She started learning to play the violin at the age of 6, under the tutelage of the concertmaster of Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra and graduate from the Royal Academy of Music in London, Omiros Yiavroumis. Rafailia received the Greek National Diploma-Certificate with honors in violin performance in Thessaloniki at the age of 16 with first prize. In August 2016, she moved to Charlotte, North Carolina and has been attending the Hayes School of Music for a degree in violin performance, studying under Professor Nancy Bargerstock while she has studied for a little while with violinist Janet Sung in DePaul School of Music in Chicago. In 2016 she was awarded the Hayes Young Artist, which is a four-year scholarship. Rafailia has appeared as a recitalist, and was appointed assistant concertmaster as a sophomore with the Appalachian Symphony Orchestra and principal second violin in the Appalachian Opera Orchestra. She also participates in Baroque Ensembles in the Hayes School of Music and has acted as first violinist of her string quartet for the past three years. Her past public appearances include performances with the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra and MOUSA in Greece, as well as the Aristotle Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed side-by-side with the North Carolina Symphony in December 2018 as principal second violin.
In the summer of 2017, she attended the violin festival Mountaintop
Mastercourse in New York and studied with David Russell. She also participated
in masterclasses with Steven and Larissa Elisha, and attended a series of
masterclasses with Rachel Burton Pine in Atlanta. Since October 2017, Rafailia
has been performing with the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra in Tennessee as a
first violinist as well as first violinist with the Western Piedmont Symphony
Orchestra in Hickory. She has been an active member of the American String
Teachers Association since 2016 and she has been attending conferences in
various states. Rafailia has also attended the famous festival in Northern
Europe, Alion Baltic International Music Festival in Estonia and she has toured Northern Europe the summer of 2018 as a recitalist and chamber musician. Rafailia has also studied with scholarship and excellence under the tutelage of the
internationally acclaimed violinists Albert Markov, Sergei Stadler, Stanislav
Pronin, Anastasia Kozlova, Ivry Gitlis and Alissa Margulis, Uli Speth and Jeffrey Multer as well as masterclasses with the Pacifica Quartet based at the IU Jacobs School of Music.
The summer of 2019, Rafailia participated in the Classical Bridge Music Festival that took place in Lincoln center and Juilliard School Rose studio in New York City with partial scholarship. She had masterclasses with distinguished violinists such as Ani Kavafian, Lucie Robert and Pinchas Zukerman.
In July 24 and 25 2020, Rafailia will be performing with Vidin Sinfonietta in Bulgaria and Romania the Tchaikovsky violin concerto in D and Sibelius Violin Concerto first movement.
Rafailia is performing as a recitalist around Europe and US as well as in her hometown, Greece. She is currently giving recitals in New York City in Opera America Center and the DiMenna Center. Rafailia also has made recordings in the Juilliard school in the recording studio. She currently studies with Dr. Nancy E. Bargerstock and will receive her Bachelor of Music degree in May, 2020. She currently plays on an Italian violin 1870, loan from her teacher until 2020.