The violin is the instrument closest to the human voice, and music is Russian violinist VADIM REPIN’s mother tongue. He is a virtuoso of many voices, and his astonishing ability to draw a rich palette of sound from his instrument, together with his dazzling technique, has enthralled audiences around the globe. Fiery passion with impeccable technique, poetry, and sensitivity are Repin’s trademarks.

Born in Siberia in 1971, he started to play violin at the age of five and six months later had his first stage performance. At only eleven he won the gold medal in all age categories in the Wieniawski Competition and gave his recital debuts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1985, at age 14, he made his debuts in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin, and Helsinki; a year later, in Carnegie Hall. Two years later Repin was the youngest-ever winner of the most prestigious and demanding violin competition in the world, the Reine Elisabeth Concours.

Since then, he has performed with the world’s greatest orchestras: the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Philharmonia, the Royal Concertgebouw, the San Francisco Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and La Scala. He is a regular guest in New York; in the 2006/07 season he played with the New York Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti at Lincoln Center and with the NDR and Christoph von Dohnányi in Carnegie Hall. He has performed under the baton of leading conductors such as Boulez, Bychkov, Chailly, Conlon, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Fedoseyev, Gergiev, Jansons, Neeme and Paavo Järvi, Krivine, Levine, Luisi, Marriner, Masur, Mehta, Nagano, Rattle, Rozhdestvensky, Temirkanov, and Zinman.

Vadim Repin has been a frequent guest at festivals such as Tanglewood, Ravinia, Rheingau, Gstaad, Verbier, and the BBC Proms. In the 2006/07 season he performed with the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein, had extensive tours of Australasia, a tour with the NDR Orchestra of Hamburg, and a four-part Artist in Residence series with the Bamberg Symphony under Jonathan Nott, performing all the major Russian violin concertos.

Repin regularly collaborates with Nikolai Lugansky and Itamar Golan in recital. His other chamber music partners have included Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Evgeny Kissin, Mischa Maisky, and Mikhail Pletnev. His many CDs include prize-winning recordings of the great Russian violin concertos by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky on Warner Classics, and he recently signed a recording agreement with Deutsche Grammophon. His first recording on this label, featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and “Kreutzer” Sonata, was released in September 2007 and features the Vienna Philharmonic, Riccardo Muti, and Martha Argerich. Repin plays on the 1736 “Von Szerdahely” by Guarneri del Gesù.

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