Gidon Kremer

About Gidon Kremer

Over the course of more than 30 years of a distinguished career, violinist Gidon Kremer, born in Riga in 1947, has established a worldwide reputation as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation, praised for his high degree of individualism, his rejection of the well-trodden paths of interpretation, and his search for new possibilities.

Gidon Kremer has made more than 100 recordings for a number of record labels. His latest Nonesuch release is a recording of the complete Mozart violin concertos (2009), which follows The Russian Seasons and Happy Birthday, both from 2003; a disc of works by Romanian composer Georges Enescu (2002); and the Grammy Award–winning After Mozart (2001). Tracing Astor (2001) marked the third disc in a trilogy of albums celebrating the music of Astor Piazzolla, which also includes the Grammy-nominated Hommage à Piazzolla (1996) and El Tango (1997), featuring arrangements of works by Piazzolla performed by Kremer’s acclaimed Astor Quartet.

Kremer’s recordings, which have earned him a series of major international awards, have set new standards of interpretation. His repertoire is unusually extensive, encompassing all of the standard classical and Romantic violin works, as well as music by 20th-century masters. He has also championed the works of living Russian and Eastern European composers and has performed many important new compositions, of which several are dedicated to him. It is owing to his never-ending activities that we are able to appreciate composers such as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Aribert Reimann, John Adams, and Astor Piazzolla, while being able to experience classical music in a new way, one that bears tradition and at the same time remains contemporary.

Deeply committed to chamber music, his music festival in the small Austrian village of Lockenhaus, founded in 1981, is the realization of his belief that music can overcome all barriers of language and culture. Since 1992 the Lockenhaus musicians have been performing all over the world under the Kremerata Musica logo. On the occasion of Franz Schubert’s 200th birthday celebrations in 1997, they undertook a comprehensive concert cycle throughout Europe, including appearances at the Salzburg Festival.

In November 1996, Gidon Kremer founded the Kremerata Baltica, a chamber orchestra to foster outstanding young musicians from the three Baltic States. The Kremerata Baltica, which began undertaking regular concert tours with Kremer in 1997, signed an exclusive, six-record deal with Nonesuch Records, of which Eight Seasons (2000) was the inaugural release, followed by Silencio (2000), After Mozart (2001), and 2003's The Russian Seasons and Happy Birthday, and now, 2009's complete Mozart violin sonatas. In 1997, Gidon Kremer also took over leadership of the Musiksommer Gstaad (Switzerland), succeding Lord Yehudi Menuhin.

Kremer began studying the violin at the age of four with his father and grandfather, and in 1965 he became a student of David Oistrach’s master class at the Moscow Conservatory. He has since been awarded the most prestigious violinist prizes, including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and the Paganini Competition in Genoa, among others. He has also received many music awards such as the Frankfurt Music Award, the Ernst von Siemens Music Award, the first prize at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and the Federal Service Cross of Germany. Kremer has appeared on virtually every major concert stage with the most celebrated orchestras of Europe and America, and has recorded with today’s foremost conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Christoph Eschenbach, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert von Karajan, and Riccardo Muti.

Gidon Kremer plays a Nicolo Amati violin,dating from 1641.