At just thirty years of age Maxim Vengerov is recognised as one of the world’s most exciting violinists.  Since he started playing at the age of four-and-a-half, he has evolved from a precociously talented child into an assured virtuoso.  After his first recital in his hometown of Novosibirsk, Siberia, at the age of five, then studying with Galina Tourchaninova and Professor Zakhar Bron, he went on to win the First Prize in the Junior Wieniawski Competition in Poland when he was just ten years old. In 1990, aged fifteen, he took top honors at the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition which confirmed his reputation as a musician of the very highest order.

Vengerov recorded exclusively for Teldec Classics for ten years, during which time awards and accolades were plentiful, including both Gramophone Young Artist of the Year, and Ritmo (Spain) Artist of the Year in 1994. In 1996 he was awarded Record of the Year by Gramophone Magazine and received Grammy nominations for Classical Album of the Year and Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra for his recording of the Shostakovich and Prokofiev concertos No1. Vengerov received the Edison Award in 1997 in the Best Concerto Recording category, for his Shostakovich and Prokofiev concertos No2 recording and in 2003 for his solo CD Bach, Ysaÿe, Schedrin on EMI Classics with whom he signed an exclusive contract in May 2000. In September 2002 Vengerov was awarded Gramophone Artist of the Year and Edisson Award and Grammy Award winner in 2004 for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra)  for the Britten: Violin Concerto/Walton: Viola Concerto.

In 1997, at the age of twenty-three, Vengerov was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the first classical musician to be appointed in this role. By playing for abducted child-soldiers in Uganda, disadvantaged children in Harlem, children suffering from drug addiction in Thailand, and children on both sides of the Kosovan ethnic divide, it has afforded him an opportunity to both inspire children world-wide, and inspire others to raise funds for UNICEF-assisted programmes. He says: “I understood what miracles you can bring back to children with music; this is a universal language that everyone understands, it goes from heart to heart”. Another passion of Vengerov’s musical and personal life is his involvement with young people through giving Masterclasses to aspiring musicians. One such event was recorded by Channel Four Television in the UK as part of a documentary about Vengerov, called ‘Playing by Heart’ shown at the Cannes Television Festival in 1999.

Since October 2000, Vengerov has been a Professor of Violin at the Musikhochschule des Saarlandes. His pupils have appeared regularly not only as soloists, but also in ensemble with Vengerov, at many festivals, including Young Euro Classic in Berlin in 2002.

Maxim Vengerov performs regularly with all the major orchestras and the most eminent conductors. In the past three years he has taken up different projects in addition to the usual concerto and recital repertoire. On a tour with the English Chamber Orchestra he performed as both soloist and conductor for the first time, after studying conducting for two years in the class of Vag Papian, who himself studied with the legendary Ilya Musin. He performed recitals on the Baroque violin with Trevor Pinnock, went on a solo recital tour performing Bach, Shchedrin and Ysaÿe Sonatas using both his Strad and the Baroque violin in one concert, and took up the viola for another tour with the English Chamber Orchestra as well as to record the Walton Viola Concerto for EMI.

The 2003/04 season started with an extensive tour in Europe and the US with Lalo’s Symphony Espagnol and Saint Saens Violin concert No 3, another major release on EMI Classics and a Carte Blanche at the Concertgebouw. Mr Vengerov opened the 2004/05 season with the New York Philharmonic and the London Symohony Orchestra. He toured the Far East and Europe until the end of last year with a new programme of Virtuosi pieces, a record which was also released by EMI in the Autumn. The year 2005 was a sabbatical year in which Mr Vengerov studied Improvisation with Didier Lockwood and Tango Dance, and prepared for an explosive new viola concerto that Benjamin Yusupov has written for Mr Vengerov. The world premiere took now place with the NDR Orchestra in Hannover in May 2005. Plans to tour this concerto worldwide are for 2007. In 2006 Mr Vengerov will reassume his usual concert work with tours worldwide of the Mozart concertos with the UBS Verbier Chamber Orchestra and a recital tour with works by Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Mr Vengerov wishes to express his gratitude to Mrs Yoko Nagae Ceschina for all her continued support, advice and great help, which made possible the purchase of his unique ‘Kreutzer’ Stradivarius violin.


January 2006