Gidon Kremer

Of all the great violinists, Gidon Kremer probably has the least conventional career. Born in Riga, Latvia, he began to study at the age of four, with his father and his grandfather, who were both distinguished string performers. At the age of seven, he entered the Riga Conservatory and, at sixteen, he was awarded the first prize of the Latvian Republic. Two years later, he began to study with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. He continued winning the most prestigious awards, including the Concours Reine Elisabeth in 1967 and the first prize in the International Paganini and Tchaikovsky Competitions.

All these successful endeavours launched Gidon Kremer's distinguised career, during which he has earned worldwide repute as one of the most original and irresistible artists of his generation. He has played at all the major halls and with the most important orchestras in Europa and America. He has collaborated with the major conductors of our time, including Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Christoph Eschenbach, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Claudio Abbado and Sir Neville Marriner, amongst others.

Gidon Kremer's repertoire is unusually large, including the entire Classical and Romantic violin repertoire, as well as 20th-century music by masters such as H. W. Henze, A. Berg and K.-H. Stockhausen. He has also supported the work of contemporary Russian and Eastern European composers, and has performed numerous new works dedicated to him. He has been associated with various composers, such as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Aribert Reimann, Peteris Vasks, John Adams and Astor Piazzolla, bringing their music to audiences with a great respect for tradition, whilst simultaneously seeking a contemporary touch. It is fair to state that no other soloist of his international stature has done as much for present-day composers in the past thirty years.

Gidon Kremer is an exceptional, prolific artist who has recorded over one hundred records, many of which have earned him prestigious international awards for his impressive interpretative capacity. His awards include the ‘Grand Prix du Disque', the ‘Deutscher Schallplattenpreis', the ‘Ernst-von-Siemens Musikpreis', the ‘Bundesverdienstkreuz', the ‘Premio dell'Accademia Musicale Chigiana', the ‘Triumph Prize 2000' -Moscow- and, in 2001, the ‘Unesco Prize'. In February 2002, both he and the Kremerata Baltica were awarded a ‘Grammy' for the album After Mozart, recorded for the label Nonesuch. This same recording received an ‘Echo' 2002 in Germany in the autumn of 2002.

In 1981, Gidon Kremer founded the Lockenhaus, an intimate chamber music festival that is still held every summer in Austria. In 1997, he founded the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, with the purpose of encouraging and supporting young musicians from the Baltic States. Since then, Gidon Kremer has made numerous tours with the orchestra, appearing at the most prestigious festivals and halls. He has also recorded numerous albums with the orchestra for the labels Teldec and Nonesuch, including the first launching of works by Peteris Vasks and Astor Piazzolla, and his last album, Happy Birthday, with Nonesuch. Since 2002, Gidon Kremer is the artistic director of the new Les Muséiques Festival in Basel.

Gidon Kremer plays a ‘Nicola Amati' from 1641. He has also written three books in German, which reflect his artistic pursuits.