Leila Schayegh

Leila Schayegh is a violinist who specializes in repertoire from the Baroque and Classical eras. She is also a devoted educator, a prolific recording artist, and a frequent collaborator with several early music ensembles, including La Cetra Basel, Ensemble 415, and La Centifolia. Schayegh was born in 1975 in Winterthur, Switzerland, to a musical family. Her older brother played the cello, her mother played the recorder, and Schayegh began playing the violin when she was five years old. She later attended the University of Music in Basel and studied violin with Raphaël Oleg. After she completed her soloist diploma in 1999, she joined the Philharmonia Zurich, and in 2000, she joined the Zurich Opera Orchestra. Two years later, she enrolled at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and became a student of Chiara Banchini, a renowned expert in historical performance practice and Baroque music. Schayegh earned her diploma summa cum laude in 2005, and in 2006, she began teaching Baroque violin at the University of Karlsruhe. In 2008, Schayegh started playing with Stephan MacLeod and the Gli Angeli Genève ensemble, and they performed many cantatas by J.S. Bach. She also collaborated on Vivaldi: Concerto a Quattro Violini; L'Estro Armonico with Ensemble 415 and her former teacher Banchini. Schayegh also appeared on Handel: Clori, Tirsi e Fileno - Le Cantate Italiane, Vol. 5 in 2009 with La Risonanza, led by Fabio Bonizzoni. She left her position at the University of Karlsruhe in 2010 and joined Amandine Beyer as the chair of the Baroque violin department at the Schola Cantorum. In the 2010s, Schayegh performed, taught, and recorded several albums with early music ensembles such as Concerto Köln, La Cetra Basel, and La Centifolia. Her 2016 collaboration with Ilze Grudule and Jörg Halubek, Johann Sebastian Bach: Sei Suonate à Cembalo certato è Violino Solo, BWV 1014-1019, won both a Gramophone Award and the Diapason de l'année. She expanded her repertoire into the Romantic period in 2018 and released Johannes Brahms: Violin Sonatas with pianist Jan Schultsz. In the 2020s, Schayegh kept a busy pace as a recording artist and has released albums with Il Gusto Barocco, La Cetra, and La Centifolia. As a solo performer, she also recorded Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonatas and Partitas in 2021. Her 2023 release Ciaccona! with La Centifolia features an intriguing exploration into the popular Baroque dance style. After being awarded the prestigious Swiss Music Prize in 2024, Schayegh recorded a complete cycle of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's Rosary Sonatas, which was released in early 2026. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi