Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer, who was born in 1947 in Riga in present-day Republic of Latvia, began his violin training at the age of four, becoming a master pupil of David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory in 1965. He won such important distinctions during his youth as the Premio Paganini in Genua (1969) and the International Tchai-kovsky Competition in Moscow (1970). Gidon Kremer has concertized with the most acclaimed orchestras in Europe and the United States, and his performances have established interpretive standards. Along with the great works of the Classical and Romantic eras, the violinist’s repertoire includes a series of scores from the 20th and 21st centuries. With these he has dedicated his artistry intensively to such composers as Arvo Pärt, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Edison Denisov, Mieczysław Weinberg, Luigi Nono, and Aribert Reimann. In 1981 Kremer established a chamber music festival in Lockenhaus, Austria, which he led for thirty years, until 2011. In 1996 he founded the Kremerata Baltica, a chamber orchestra that without exception comprises young Baltic musicians and with whom he regularly tours to international stages and to the major festivals. Kremer has released more than 120 recordings, which have garnered such awards as the German Record Critics’ Prize, the Grand Prix du Disque, and the Grammy Award. He has additionally published several books on music and his life; most recently, in 2013, his Briefe an eine junge Pianistin came out. Kremer has been rewarded numerous distinctions for his achievements, such as the Unesco Prize, the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, the Frankfurt Music Prize, the Premio dell’Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and the Saeculum Music Prize. In 2016 he received Japan’s Praemium Imperiale, which includes a cash award of 130,000 Euros. Gidon Kremer plays a violin built by Nicola Amati in 1641.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 20 August 1999 playing Kancheli’s Lament with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.

July 2018