Gidon Kremer

Guided by his remarkably uncompromising artistic philosophy, GIDON KREMER has earned a global reputation as one of the most original and exciting performers of his generation. He is an artist who has made “the unconventional” his trademark. His repertoire includes works from the classical violin tradition as well as music by leading composers of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. He is a champion of numerous contemporary composers and has premiered a wide range of significant new works, many of which have been dedicated to him personally. His name is closely associated with composers such as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Edison Denisov, Georgs Pelecis, Pēteris Vasks, Raminta Šerkšnienė, Leonid Desyatnikov, Viktor Kisin, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, and Astor Piazzolla. Kremer performs their works with respect for tradition while remaining fully open to their freshness and originality. It is fair to say that over the past three decades, no other soloist of comparable international stature has done as much for contemporary composers. In 1997, Maestro Kremer founded the Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra with the aim of supporting outstanding young musicians from the three Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Since then, the ensemble and its founder have undertaken extensive tours, performing at the world’s most prestigious festivals and venues. They have also recorded nearly 40 albums for the labels Teldec, Nonesuch, Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, and ECM. In 1981, Kremer founded the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival - an intimate musical hub that brings together outstanding performers. He served as the first artistic director of the les muséiques festival in Basel, Switzerland, from 2002 to 2006. The performer’s personal discography includes over 200 albums, many of which have been honored with prestigious international awards. These include the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, a Grammy Award, the Federal Cross of Merit (Germany), Latvia’s Grand Music Award (the highest state honor in the field of music), the UNESCO Award, the “Una Vita Nella Musica – Arthur Rubinstein” Award, and the Praemium Imperiale (2016), considered the Nobel Prize for music. Added to these are the Order of “Pour le Mérite” for Science and the Arts in Germany, the “Beethoven” Award from the City of Bonn (2023), and the ICMA Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts (2025). His dedication to “rediscovering” the composer Mieczysław Weinberg also deserves special mention - a cause to which Kremer has contributed immensely in recent years with highly acclaimed albums released by Deutsche Grammophon, Accentus Music, and ECM. The violinist was born in 1947 in Riga, Latvia. He began playing the violin at age four under the guidance of his father and grandfather - both distinguished string instrumentalists. At age seven, he enrolled in the Riga Music School. At sixteen, he received the First Prize of the Republic of Latvia, and two years later began studying with the legendary David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. He is a laureate of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth (1967) and Montreal International Music Competition (1969), and won first prizes at the Paganini (1969) and Tchaikovsky (1970) competitions. This success marked the beginning of Gidon Kremer’s brilliant career; he has performed on nearly every major concert stage in the world with the most renowned orchestras and leading conductors of our time, as well as in chamber ensembles with the most elite musicians. He is the author of four books - Overtones, Fragments of Childhood, Between Worlds, and Letters to a Young Pianist - which have been translated into several languages and reveal the breadth of his artistic explorations and aesthetic views. He has also published his memoirs, My Path (in Russian under the ironic title Foreign Artist). Following his concert with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Nayden Todorov in Sofia, Gidon Kremer will embark on an intensive concert tour across Europe. In late May, he will perform at the Eckelshausener Musiktage festival in Germany. This will be followed by the official launch in Paris of the artist’s anniversary celebrations - he will turn 80 in 2027 - with the project Fragments of a Life in Letters and two additional programs. In June, he will give a concert in Oxford and participate in the International Shostakovich Days with Kremerata Baltica; in July, he will perform at the Paliesiaus dvaras festival in Lithuania; and in September, he will take part in the festival in Brug, Switzerland. Gidon Kremer plays a violin made by Niccolò Amati in 1641.