"Skride’s playing is unfailingly intelligent - her virtuosity is allied to a sure sense of the work’s [Tchaikovsky] emotional range. Her tone is full but beautifully controlled, and her phrasing throughout has a natural flair that is compelling clear-headed, thoughtful and convincing.” - International Record Review

Still in her twenties, BAIBA SKRIDE has appeared with prestigious orchestras such as the Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Residentie Orkest and the US orchestras of Philadelphia, Houston and Cincinnati. Conductors Skride regularly collaborates with include Charles Dutoit, Thierry Fischer, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, John Storgårds and with her peers, Mikko Franck, Andris Nelsons and Kirill Petrenko.

Highlights in the 2010/11 season include Baiba Skride’s much anticipated debut with the Berlin Philharmonic playing Berg “To the memory of an Angel” with Andris Nelsons and concerts with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra playing Shostakovich No.1; the German press noted of her interpretation of this concerto last season: “Touching, poignant, defiant– a whole bundle of different emotions, which Baiba Skride in outstanding forcefulness brought to sound.” Further afield she tours Germany with the SWR Radio Symphony Stuttgart and Thomas Dausgaard, playing Brahms double concerto with Daniel Müller-Schott. She returns to the MDR Symphony Leipzig, the Danish Radio Symphony, Copenhagen Philharmonic and the Northern Sinfonia.

Across the continents Baiba Skride gives her debuts with Sydney Symphony and Simone Young with Szymanowski No.1, with Los Angeles Philharmonic and with Bramwell Tovey at Hollywood Bowl’s Tchaikovsky weekend and with Vancouver Symphony. She returns to Baltimore, Oregon, North Carolina and Kansas City Symphony Orchestras, with conductors such as Mario Venzago and Carlos Kalmar. In the Far East she is featured with Seoul Philharmonic and the National Symphony Taiwan.

Baiba Skride’s growing commitment to contemporary music sees her perform Gubaidulina’s Offertorium with the Bavarian State Orchestra and Marc Albrecht. With her long established chamber music partner Lauma Skride, she world-premieres the double concerto by the Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen with the Royal Danish and the Swedish Chamber Orchestras. Following great international acclaim the duo appears at venues such as the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Concertgebouw Brugge and the Sociedad Filharmonica Bilbao.

Skride has been recording for Sony Classical since 2004. Her highly praised discography was recently highlighted with a Tchaikovsky CD with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons. She released a first duo recording with her sister (Schubert, Beethoven, Ravel) as well as a solo violin disc (Ysaye, Bartok, Bach) and two concerto discs (Mozart, Schubert, Michael Haydn and Shostakovich, Janacek).

Baiba Skride was born into a musical Latvian family in Riga where she began her studies, transferring in 1995 to the Conservatory of Music and Theatre in Rostock. In 2001 she won the 1st prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. She plays the Stradivarius "Wilhelmj" violin (1725), which is generously on loan to her from the Nippon Music Foundation.