In the 30-year course of his distinguished career, violinist Gidon Kremer has established a worldwide reputation as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation. He has appeared on virtually every major concert stage with the most celebrated orchestras of Europe and America and has collaborated with today's foremost conductors and instrumentalists.
His repertoire is unusually extensive, encompassing all of the standard classical and Romantic violin works, as well as music by 20th-century masters such as Henze, Berg and Stockhausen. He has also championed the works of living Russian and Eastern European composers and has performed many important new compositions, several of them dedicated to him. He has become associated with such diverse composers as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Aribert Reimann, Peteris Vasks, John Adams and Astor Piazzolla, bringing their music to audiences in a way that respects tradition yet remains contemporary.
Since making his Western debut, Mr. Kremer has appeared with the orchestras of Berlin, Boston, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, London, Paris and Vienna in collaborations with a distinguished list of conductors that includes Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Andre Previn, Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Zubin Mehta, Sir Neville Marriner, and David Zinman.
Deeply committed to chamber music, Mr. Kremer devotes a portion of his schedule to recital appearances with partners such as Valery Afanassiev, Martha Argerich, Keith Jarrett, Oleg Maisenberg, Vadim Sakharov, Tatyana Grindenko, Misha Maisky and Thomas Zehetmair.
Highlights of Mr. Kremer's 2006-07 season included concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra in Munich and New York's Carnegie Hall, as well as duo recitals with Krystian Zimerman in Italy, New York, Boston, Princeton, and Quebec. A recital program entitled "From Bach to Piazzolla" with pianist Andrius Zlabys and percussionist Andrei Pushkarev was followed by the fifth US tour with his chamber orchestra, Kremerata Baltica.
An exceptionally prolific recording artist, Gidon Kremer has made more than 100 albums for Deutsche Grammophon, Teldec, Philips, ECM, Sony Classical, EMI/Angel and Nonesuch. His recordings have garnered many awards, among them the prestigious "Grand Prix du Disque" and "Deutsche Schallplattenpreis." His most recent releases are a disc of Shostakovich sonatas for violin and viola with Yuri Bashmet recorded live on Deutsche Grammophon in addition to the complete Sonatas and Partitas of Bach on the ECM label in the fall of 2005.
Since 1981, Mr. Kremer has been inviting a select group of artists to participate in the music festival he founded in the small Austrian village of Lockenhaus. For two weeks each summer, musicians from all parts of the world gather to perform in an intimate setting. The festival's emphasis is on the exploration of new repertoire, with unusual pairings of musicians who collaborate in an informal atmosphere conducive to discovery and communication. Lockenhaus is the realization of the violinist's belief that music can overcome all barriers of language and culture. Since 1992, musicians from Lockenhaus have been touring throughout the world under the name Kremerata Musica. Tours have included a critically acclaimed "Hommage à Piazzolla" program in 1997 as well as a world tour and recording of a concert version of Piazzolla's tango operita "Maria de Buenos Aires" in 1998.
In November 1996, Mr. Kremer founded the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra to foster outstanding young musicians from the three Baltic states and since 2003, they have together presented a summer festival in Sigulda, Latvia. He undertakes regular concert tours with the orchestra, serving as Artistic Director and soloist. He and the Kremerata Baltica were awarded a Grammy for their Nonesuch recording "After Mozart" (2001). Their latest recording for ECM of works by Schubert is now available. Other recent releases include "Kremerland" (2004) on Deutsche Grammophon, and "The Russian Season" (2003), "Happy Birthday" (2003) and a CD of works by Romanian composer Georges Enescu (2002) on the Nonesuch label.
Gidon Kremer was born in 1947 in Riga, Latvia. He began his study of the violin at age 4 with his father and grandfather, both of whom were accomplished string players. At 7 his formal education began with his entry into the Riga Music School as a student of Professor Sturestep. By the time he reached the eighth grade he was auditioning for competitions in Poland, Romania and France, and at 16 he was awarded the First Prize of the Latvian Republic. Two years later he successfully auditioned for David Oistrakh and became one of the few students selected to apprentice under that master at the Moscow Conservatory.
In 1967 Mr. Kremer won his first international prize: the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Following this triumph, he took a prize in the Montreal Competition, top honors in the Paganini Competition in Genoa, and, finally, the coveted First Prize in the 1970 Tchaikovsky Competition.
Gidon Kremer plays a Nicola Amati 1641. He is also the author of three books, published in Latvian, German, Russian, Japanese and Chinese, which reflect his artistic pursuits.
