BIOGRAPHY

Guided by an incredibly uncompromising artistic philosophy, Gidon Kremer is one of the most original artists of his generation and boasts an exceptionally wide repertoire, ranging from classical music to major 20th and 21st-century composers. He is particularly known for championing the works of Russian and Eastern European composers and has premiered many compositions dedicated to him. No other soloist of his stature has so ardently supported contemporary composers and the new violin music.

In 2025, the prestigious International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) committee honored his extraordinary artistic career by awarding him the “Lifetime Achievement Award” for his entire body of work. In 2016, the Emperor of Japan awarded him the Praemium Imperiale, which is considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for music.

He has collaborated with many contemporary composers, including Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Pēteris Vasks, John Adams, Victor Kissine, Philip Glass, and Astor Piazzolla, interpreting their works in a way that respects tradition while being fully aware of their freshness and originality. His international career has led him to share the stage with the greatest orchestras, conducted by prestigious maestros such as Leonard Bernstein, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Herbert von Karajan, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and Seiji Ozawa.

Gidon Kremer regularly performs in chamber music alongside renowned artists such as Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, András Schiff, Daniil Trifonov, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, among others. In 2025, he takes part in a European tour alongside Evgeny Kissin in a program commemorating the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death.

In 1997, he founded the Kremerata Baltica, a chamber orchestra composed of young musicians from the three Baltic states. Since then, they have been invited to the most prestigious festivals and international stages, recording around thirty albums for the Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, and ECM labels.

Moreover, Gidon Kremer has recorded over 120 albums and received numerous international awards, including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, the Federal Cross of Merit, the Triumph Prize (Moscow), the UNESCO Prize, and the Una Vita Nella Musica-Artur Rubinstein Award. In 2019, his two albums dedicated to the works of Mieczysław Weinberg were released by Deutsche Grammophon and have been hailed by critics as the best recordings of the composer’s works.

Born in Riga, Latvia, Gidon Kremer began his violin lessons at the age of 4 with his father and grandfather, both musicians. A student at the Riga Conservatory, he won his first award, the first prize of Latvia, at the age of 16. Two years later, he studied under David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. Placing third at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1967, he went on to win the first prizes at the Paganini Competition (1969) and the Tchaikovsky Competition (1970), which launched his international career. Conductor Herbert von Karajan regarded him as the best violinist of his generation.

Gidon Kremer plays a violin made by Nicola Amati in 1641.