Gidon Kremer

Violinist Gidon Kremer was born in Riga, Latvia on February 27, 1947; he began studying music at age four under the tutelage of his father and grandfather, both noted string players in their own right. Three years later he was accepted to the Riga Music School, and at 16 won first prize at the Latvian Republic. Following a tenure studying at the Moscow Conservatory under David Oistrakh, in 1967 Kremer took home top honors in the Queen Elizabeth Competition; he subsequently won first prize in Genoa's Paganini Competition and the International Tchaikovsky Competition as well. Throughout the course of the career that followed, Kremer explored both the classical canon and avant-garde material, working with a vast-ranging series of chamber partners including Martha Argerich, András Schiff, Keith Jarrett and Yo-Yo Ma. In 1981 he founded the Kremerata Musica, an annual chamber music festival in Lockenhaus, Austria; 16 years later he formed the Kremerata Baltica, a string orchestra assembling the finest young talent from the Baltic region. Kremer also assumed control of Yehudi Menuhin's Gstaad Summer Music Festival in 1996. His recordings include performances of the Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms violin concertos as well as more eclectic fare including 1998's Le Cinema, a collection of film music made in conjunction with pianist Oleg Maisenberg.