Liviu Prunaru Resigns as Concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Romanian violinist has been one of two RCO concertmasters since 2006

The Romanian violinist Liviu Prunaru has announced his resignation from Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO). Since 2006, he has served as one of the orchestra's two concertmasters, alongside Vesko Eschkenazy.

Prunaru studied with Alberto Lysy at the Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland, and with Dorothy DeLay in New York. In 1993, he won Second Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, where he also received the Prix International Eugène Ysaÿe and the Audience Prize.

Prunaru has appeared solo with the Juilliard Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra. He made his solo debut with the RCO in 2008, when he performed Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3.

Alongside the RCO, Prunaru has also been a soloist performing the Dvořák Violin Concerto (December 2012) and in Piazzolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (June 2014).

Between 2010 and 2012, he was Artistic Director of the Menuhin Music Academy.

"I can let you know that Liviu Prunaru has decided to leave the orchestra," Michiel Jongejan, the RCO's PR manager, told the Netherlands public radio podcast Klassiek Inside. "He has informed us that he wants to explore other ambitions and will therefore leave the orchestra at the end of this season. He has been concertmaster for a very long time — it is not surprising if people want to do something else at some point."

Below you can hear a recording of Prunaru performing Enescu's Lǎutarul.