Mario Hossen is an Austro-Bulgarian soloist of international acclaim. He has performed with renowned orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, the Orchester Wiener Akademie, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the Bruckner Orchester Linz, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, the Wiener Concert-Verein, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Hailed for his incredible virtuosity and charismatic stage presence, he plays a repertoire all the way from Renaissance to Classical music and to contemporary works and Jazz. Together with music by leading last centuries composers, he performs and promotes the works of the great Bulgarian composers Pancho Vladigerov, Marin Goleminov and Peter Christoskov.
Hossen was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. His mother, Nelly Batchvarova, was an opera singer and his father was a lawyer and diplomat. His ancestry is a blend of four nationalities. He has been living in Vienna since 1991, and in 1995 received Austrian citizenship in the special interest of the Republic. He had his education in Sofia, Vienna and Paris. At the early age of 3 years, he asked for a violin, at 5 he started to play piano, at 6 he began his violin studies in Plovdiv with his first teacher Atanas Batchvarov. Among his teachers are Darina Dankova, Michael Frischenschlager and Gerard Poulet. He had his debut as a soloist with orchestra at the age of eight. Since then, he has given concerts with the major Bulgarian Orchestras and in prestigious international halls of more than 40 countries.
Mario Hossen holds several prestigious Awards, among them the City of Sofia, Musician of the Year award. The oldest Bulgarian Music Festival, the “Varna Summer International Music festival” (1926), under Mario Hossen as Artistic Director, was the European Festival Association (EFA), EFFE laureate for the 2019-2020-season and the winner of the European Audience Award.
He dives deep into every piece, considering the musical historical context and the greatest possible authenticity. Hossen‘s musicological and artistic endeavors are focused among other things on source research on Niccolò Paganini. He is considered as one of the leading interpreters and experts of Paganini’s Music. The complete oeuvre of Paganini for solo violin and for violin with orchestra are available as a historical-critical edition by Doblinger’s “Diletto Musicale” Music Series-Vienna.
Mario Hosen has released 22 CD albums for the Italian record label Dynamic and for Doron Music Switzerland. His discography includes all concertos of Niccolo Paganini, Max Bruch, Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, integrals with the Paganini complete Quartets, the Violin Sonatas of L. v. Beethoven, J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel, , as well as world premiere recordings of unreleased works by Paganini, Mozart, Tartini, Rolla and Mercadante. Among the composers who dedicated works to him are Rainer Bischof, Georgi Arnaoudov, Tomás Marco, François-Pierre Descamps, Periklis Liakakis, Roumen Dimitrov, Alessandro Solbiati and Walter Baer.
In 2019, Mario Hossen accepted the proposal for the recording of the complete Quartets and chamber music works by Paganini and founded the “PAGANINI ENSEMBLE VIENNA”.
As a conducting soloist, he leads the Vienna Chamber Orchestra in the concert series “Concert Spirituel” in Vienna.
Prof. Dr. Mario Hossen teach and give master classes around the world, including Bulgaria (New Bulgarian University), Spain (Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia Madrid), France (Conservatoire de Paris), Austria (Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts) along with many others. He has also been invited to be a member of the jury at important international violin competitions, including the Fritz Kreisler Violin Competition (Vienna) the Ginette Neveu Violin Competition (Avignon), the Tibor Varga, Junior Violin Competition (Sion), Varna, Tokyo, Thessaloniki, Santander competitions.
Mario Hossen plays a G.B. Guadagnini Violin (1749), which is loaned to him by the Austrian National Bank. He has been an artist of “Thomastik-Infeld” since 2008 and plays all concerts exclusively on his preferred “Titanium Solo” and "Dynamo" strings.
