Teacher Biographies

Ondrej Lewit, Violin and Viola

Born in Prague (Czech Republic), Ondrej Lewit started to study the violin at the age of seven at Elementary School of Music. Later he continued at State Conservatory of Music and obtained his MA degree graduating at Academy of Performing Arts. As a member of Camerata Pragensis and Camerata Nova, concertmaster of J. Suk's Chamber Orchestra and especially as a first violin of Cuartetto Cassoviae, Ondrej played in many European countries and made many recordings for the Czechoslovak Radio and Television, Italian RAI and recording companies like Supraphon, Opus and Edigsa.

In 1983 Ondrej immigrated to Spain, where he became the concertmaster of Tenerife Symphony Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfonicade Tenerife - OST) and later also leader of OST Chamber Orchestra, playing on numerous occasions as a soloist with many important guest conductors such as R. Barshai, E. Colomer, S. Morgenstern, T. Olilla, D. Shallon, D. Solomon, Y. Talmi and many others. He was a violin teacher and chamber music coach at Santa Cruz Conservatory from 1984 to 1989. In 1997 he started to teach violin and chamber music at OST's Academy of Orchestral Studies (Director and Chair of the String Department).

In 1987 he renewed his quartet activity as a first violin of the Lewit Quartet (formerly Cuartetto Cassoviae), which appeared at many Spanish concert halls through 2000.
From 1988 to 1992 he was an Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra member (in 1992 as an associated concertmaster), a chamber music player and faculty at Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC.

Between 1995 and 1997 the Spanish Youth Orchestra and the Catalonia Youth Symphony invited him to work with them as a violin teacher and a chamber music coach for their summer camps.
In 2000 he moved to Barcelona where he played until 2003 as a concertmaster with the Liceo Opera Theater Orchestra. He was also invited often as a guest concertmaster for Valles Symphony (Sabadell), Galician Symphony (La Corona), Bilbao Symphony and Castilla-Leon Symphony (Valladolid).

Since 2005 Ondrej has been concertmaster for Baja California Orchestra and violin teacher at its Conservatory of Musicin Tijuana, Mexico.

Since 2004 Ondrej has operated a private violin and viola teaching studio in San Diego.

For more information and scheduling please call 858-623-0036 or email Ondrej Lewit at sandiego@hammondashley.com.