Laureate of numerous international competitions including: Third Prize Winner of the “Watson Forbes” International Viola Competition 2009, and Finalist in the Yuri Bashmet Viola Competition 2013 in Moscow, violist Mihai Cocea is the principal viola of the Brussels Philarmonic. He has recently been awarded the title “Associate” by the Royal Academy of Music in London for his artistic activity on an international level.
As a soloist, Mihai Cocea has performed with several orchestras, among which: Nova Russia, Brussels Philarmonic, St. Andrews Symphony Orchestra, Bristol Metropolitan Orchestra, Moscow Soloists and many more.Chamber music offered Mihai the opportunity to collaborate with Bruno Giuranna, Daishin Kashimoto, Rocco Filipini, Thorsten Johanns, Gustavo Carvalho, Nicolas Dautricourt, Liisa Randalu, Razvan Popovici and Alexander Sitkovetsky in numerous festivals organised in Europe. The Music Festival ‘Huilo Huilo’ in Chile granted him the title of artist in residence starting with 2019. Together with clarinetist Annelien van Wauwe and other winners of the ARD competition, Mihai is part of the ‘ Carousel Ensemble’ which, since 2019 has performed in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany
As an orchestra musician, Mihai Cocea was the leader of the Liechtenstein Orchester and co-leader of the St.Gallen Symphonic Orchestra, Switzerland.
Mihai Cocea studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London with Paul Silverthrone and he was the recipient of a grant offered by the Swiss Confederation to complete his master’s degree in Zurich under the guidance of the famous violist Lawrence Power.