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Gidon Kremer (Latvian: Gidons Krēmers) - born February 27, 1947 - is a Latvian violinist and conductor.
Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish origin, his
father being a Holocaust survivor. He began playing the violin at the
age of four, receiving tuition from his father and his grandfather, who
were both professional violinists. He went on to study at the Riga
School of Music and with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. In
1967, he won third prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in
Brussels; first prize at the 1969 Paganini Competition in Genoa; and
first prize again in 1970 at the International Tchaikovsky Competition
in Moscow.
Kremer's first concert in the West was in Germany in 1975, followed
by appearances at the Salzburg Festival in 1976 and in New York City in
1977. In 1981, Kremer founded a chamber music festival in Lockenhaus,
Austria, with a focus on new and unconventional programming; since 1992
the festival has been known as "Kremerata Musica" and in 1996 Kremer
founded the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, composed of young
players from the Baltic region. He was also among the artistic
directors of the festival "Art Projekt 92" in Munich and is director of
the Musiksommer Gstaad festival in Switzerland. Kremer is known for his
wide-ranging repertoire, extending from Antonio Vivaldi and J.S. Bach
to contemporary composers. He has championed the work of composers such
as Ástor Piazzolla, George Enescu, Philip Glass, Alfred
Schnittke, Leonid Desyatnikov, Alexander Raskatov, Alexander Voustin,
Lera Auerbach, Peteris Vasks, Arvo Pärt, Roberto Carnevale and
John Adams. Among the many composers who have dedicated works to him
are Sofia Gubaidulina (Offertorium) and Luigi Nono (La lontananza
nostalgica utopica futura). His partners in performance include Valery
Afanassiev, Martha Argerich, Oleg Maisenberg, Mischa Maisky, Yuri
Bashmet and Vadim Sakharov. He has a large discography on the Deutsche
Grammophon label, for which he has recorded since 1978; he has also
recorded for Philips Records, as well as Decca Records, ECM and
Nonesuch Records.
Kremer has numbered in his collection of antique violins a Guarneri del Gesù violin made in 1730; and the Antonio Stradivari violin of 1734 often referred to by it's sobriquet, Baron Feititsch-Heermann. His current violin is a Nicolo Amati violin dating from 1641.
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