Martin Chalifour

Mr. Chalifour began his tenure as Principal Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1995. The recipient of various grants and awards in his native Canada, he graduated with honors from the Montreal Conservatory at the age of 18 and then moved to Philadelphia to pursue studies at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Mr. Chalifour received a Certificate of Honor at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and is also a laureate of the Montreal International Competition. Apart from his LA Phil duties he maintains an active solo career, playing a diverse repertoire of more than 50 concertos. Chalifour has appeared as soloist with conductors Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Neville Marriner, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Outside the U.S., he has played solos with the Auckland Philharmonia, the Montreal Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Taiwan, and the Malaysian Philharmonic, among others.

Mr. Chalifour is a frequent guest at several summer music festivals, including the Sarasota Festival, the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, and the Mainly Mozart Festival. Maintaining close ties with his native country, he has returned there often to teach and perform as soloist with various Canadian orchestras, most recently with the Vancouver Symphony and Barmwell Tovey.