Born into a family of musicians in Moscow in 1980, Mikhail Ovrutsky began violin lessons at the age of only five at a school for musically highly gifted children. At eleven he moved to America with his family, where he first studied at the Manhattan School of Music and later received tuition from Dorothy DeLay at the New York Juilliard School. Crucial in his development was his meeting with Zakhar Bron, who accepted him into his class at the age of 17. After that he passed his diploma and concert exams (both “with distinction”) at the Cologne Musikhochschule and was subsequently named assistant to Professor Bron.
Mikhail Ovrutsky has won an astonishing number of prizes in international competitions, including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. A turning point for Ovrutsky came in 2005 with his success in the renowned Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, which resulted in numerous engagements with major orchestras and conductors. In the meantime he has also worked as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Filarmonica della Scala, the BBC Philharmonic, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Russian Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in St. Petersburg, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Bonn Beethoven Orchestra, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and many others.
His numerous meetings with Anne-Sophie Mutter were significant for Ovrutsky on an artistic as well as on a personal level. She accepted him into her foundation for young and highly talented soloists in 2004. In addition she nominated him in 2006 for the European award from the “Pro Europa” Foundation “on the basis of his great artistic talent and his outstanding achievements”.
Alongside his solo engagements Mikhail Ovrutsky can also regularly be heard performing as a chamber musician in famous festivals and important concert halls, for instance at Lockenhaus, the Lucerne Festival, the Bonn Beethovenfest, in the Vienna Konzerthaus or the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 2005 he founded the Beethoven Trio Bonn, with whose cellist Grigory Alumyan he will accompany the finalists of the International Telekom Beethoven Competition in the chamber music finale.
Mikhail Ovrutsky plays a violin made by Gioffredo Cappa in Turin, c. 1700.