Maxim Vengerov

Universally hailed as one of the world’s finest musicians, and often referred to as the greatest living string player in the world today, Grammy award winner Maxim Vengerov also enjoys international acclaim as a conductor and is one of the most in-demand soloists.

Born in 1974, he began his career as a solo violinist at the age of five, won the Wieniawski and Carl Flesch international competitions at ages 10 and 15 respectively, studied with Galina Tourchaninova and Zakhar Bron, made his first recording at the age of 10, and went on to record extensively for high-profile labels including Melodia, Teldec and EMI, earning among others, Grammy and Gramophone artist of the year awards.

His recordings received numerous awards including Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) (2003), two Gramophone awards (1994, 1995), a Classical Brit Award (2004), five Edison Classical Music Awards (1995, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2004), two ECHO awards (1997, 2003).

His latest recordings - available from Idagio- include a new recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France under Myung-Whun Chung and a live recording of the Carnegie Hall recital in February 2020.

As one of Mr Vengerov’s greatest passions is the teaching and encouraging of young talent, he has held various teaching positions around the world. He currently holds the Stephan and Viktoria Schmidheiny Endowed Professorship at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. Since September 2016 he has also held the Polonsky visiting professorship for violin at the Royal College of Music in London.

He plays the ex-Kreutzer Stradivari (1727).

Language spoken : French, English

Photo credit : Benjamin Ealovega