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 Wienawski Competition and gave his recital debuts in Moscow and St Petersburg. In 1985 at fourteen he made his debuts in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin, Helsinki; a year later in Carnegie Hall. Two years later Vadim 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 world’s greatest orchestras: the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NDR Hamburg, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, the Philharmonia, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw, San Francisco Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and La Scala, working with leading conductors such as Ashkenazy, Boulez, Bychkov, Chailly, Chung, Conlon, Dohnanyi, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Fedoseyev, Gatti, Gergiev, Jansons, Jurowski, Neeme and Paavo Järvi, Krivine, Levine, Luisi, Marriner, Masur, Mehta, Muti, Nagano, Ozawa, Rattle, Rozhdestvensky, Temirkanov, Thielemann and Zinman.
Vadim Repin has been a frequent guest at festivals such as the BBC Proms, Rheingau, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Gstaad and Verbier. He regularly collaborates with Nikolai Lugansky and Itamar Golan in recital; other chamber music partners include Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin and Mischa Maisky. The 2008/9 season was marked by some twenty-five recitals, commencing with the Salzburg Festival and continuing in Vienna, Geneva, London, Brussels, Paris, Luxembourg, Milan, New York, Washington and Tokyo.
Other recent highlights have been tours with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev; and collaborations with Christian Thielemann in Tokyo, with Riccardo Muti in New York, with
Riccardo Chailly in Leipzig, a tour of Australia with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, and unanimously acclaimed premières in London, Philadelphia, and in New York’s Carnegie Hall of a violin concerto written for him by James MacMillan. The current year includes concerts in
Rome with Temirkanov, a series with the Israel Philharmonic in Israel as well as Paris, Lucerne and Bucharest, three concerts to open the new Esterházy Palace Festival in Austria, and trio performances with Lang Lang and Mischa Maisky in Madrid, London and Salzburg.
Vadim Repin’s many CDs include prize-winning recordings of the great Russian violin concerti by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky on Warner Classics. His first recording for Deutsche Grammophon featured the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti, coupled with Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata with Martha Argerich; the second, the Brahms Violin Concerto and the Brahms Double Concerto (Truls Mørk, cello) with the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig and Riccardo Chailly. The London Sunday Times wrote: “ It is hard to think of recent recordings of these great works that match the splendour of sound and musical insight here. Superb.” He recorded Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov trios with Mischa Maisky and Lang Lang, which was awarded the Echo Classic. His latest release is a CD of works by Grieg, Janacek and César Franck with Nikolai Lugansky, which has won the 2011 BBC Music Award and the Edison Award.
In February 2010 he was awarded the Victoire d’Honneur, France’s most prestigious musical award for a lifetime’s dedication to music, and in December 2010 he became Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
Vadim Repin plays on the 1743 Bonjour violin by Guarneri del Gesù.
