David Garrett
A | EE
Born
Aachen (Germany)
Studies
Germany, USA
Highlights
Youngest exclusive Artist for DGG at the age of 13 | Vienna Musikverein | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recordings
Deutsche Grammophon | Decca
Short Biography
Since summer 2007, David Garrett has again been playing with overwhelming success in international concert halls and is celebrating a comeback beyond comparison, resulting from his crossover album “Virtuoso” and his versatile concert activities with an extensive repertoire.

Developing young people’s enthusiasm for classical concerts is close to David Garrett’s heart. As a result, he decided in spite of considerable opposition to record a crossover album with various arrangements and his own compositions of pieces and melodies that he has been involved with time and again in his life up to this point. The repertoire goes from opera arias, film music, up to “Nothing else matters” by Metallica. In this context he likes to give regular interviews in all media that arouse interest in predominantly young audiences.

In between, he has been invited to various concerts worldwide, e.g. in May 2007 he was in Israel where he played with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra 11 concerts (Mozart’s G Major Conzert, Vivaldi’s Vier Jahreszeiten and Paganini’s Concert No. 2 “La Campanella”). The conductor was George Pehlivenian, who also immediately invited him to his orchestra in Ljubljana and Villach in October 2008 to play Paganini’s “La Campanella”.

Another of David Garret’s great loves is chamber music. His partners at the piano include Itamar Golan, Daniel Gortler and Milana Chernyavska, with whom he gives guest performances at famous festivals such as the BBC Proms, the Bemus Festival in Belgrade or the Verbier Festival. In summer 2009, there are trio concerts with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Gautier Capuçon are planned for at, amongst others, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele.

David Garrett was born in Aachen as son of German-American parents and received his first violin lessons at the age of four. He had his first public concert at the age of 10 with the Hamburger Philharmoniker under the direction of Gerd Albrecht. In 1992, he began to work with the great Polish violinist Ida Haendel, who significantly influenced his artistic development.

Afterwards, an unprecedented “prodigy career” begins, leading David Garrett to all major cities in Europe, America and Japan to perform with the most distinguished orchestras and conductors. Partners at the music stand included Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Herbert Blomstedt, Charles Dutoit, Eliahu Inbal und Mikhail Pletnev, to name a few. In 1996, David Garrett performed the Elgar Violin Concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the conduction of Sir Yehudi Menuhin in the Wiener Musikverein.

At the age of 18, David Garrett moved to New York, where he became one of the first students of Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School. Working with Itzhak Perlman, David Garrett found a way to his own musical language and gained new confidence and the willingness to lead a life for music. Stylistically flexible, he developed a versatile repertoire from Bach and Mozart, including the great classical violin concerts of Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky and the rarely played violin concerts by Conus, Schumann and Dvorák up to the virtuosic pieces by Waxman, Ravel and Saint-Saëns, commending him worldwide as an exceptional soloist with infatuatingly pure sounds and youthful spirit.

In addition, David Garrett has held the Guinnes world record since May 2008 as the fastest violinist of the world. He played the “Hummelflug” by Rimskij-Korsakow in 66 seconds, which means incredible 13 notes per second.

In 1994 at the age of 13, David Garrett signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon as their youngest artist.


2011/2012
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