Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov
(Hebrew: ????? ????????, born August 20, 1974) is a violin virtuoso who was born in the Soviet Union.
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Biography
Vengerov was born to Aleksandr and Larissa Vengerov, a
Jewish family in
Novosibirsk. Both his parents were musicians - his mother, a singer, was the director of a children’s orphanage, while his father was the first
oboist of the
Novosibirsk Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. At age 5, he received his first violin lessons from Galina Turtschaninova. Around age 7, he went to
Moscow with his grandparents and teacher to study at The Central Special Music School, a specialist school affiliated with the
Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
At age 10, after his grandfather became ill, the family returned to Novosibirsk, where Maxim studied with Zakhar Bron. He won the Junior Wieniawski violin competition at this time.
[1] At age 11, he played at the opening concert of the Eighth
International Tchaikovsky Competition. When Bron left Russia in 1987 to teach at the
Royal Academy of Music (RAM), Vengerov and his mother followed him there, and did so again after Bron moved to
Lübeck to open a school there.
[2]
In 1990, Vengerov and his family emigrated to
Israel [3], where his father continued his profession as an orchestral oboist. Vengerov took Israeli citizenship and served brief duty in the
Israeli Army.
Career
At age 15, Vengerov won the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition in London,
[4] including First Prize, Interpretation Prize, the Audience Prize, and two others.
[5] He taught his first master class at the
University of California, Los Angeles. In 1993, the Hennessey organisation in France loaned Vengerov a
Stradivarius violin, the "Reynier".
Vengerov won a recording contract with Warner/Teldec, which included recordings with
Mstislav Rostropovich. These included a 1994 recording of the first violin concerti each of Shostakovich and Prokofiev (with the London Symphony Orchestra), which won the Gramophone award for ‘Best Record of the Year’ and ‘Best Concerto Recordings’, two Grammy nominations, and an Edison award. Further recordings included the second violin concerti by Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and the Brahms concerto with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
In 1995, the Stradivari society in Chicago lent Vengerov the
Kiesewetter Stradivarius, which he played until April 1998. He later performed on the
Kreutzer Stradivarius
.
In 1997, Vengerov became an honorary ambassador for
UNICEF, for which he set aside time for at least one annual project.
[6], He has performed in
Uganda and
Sudan as part of his charity work.
[7]
In 1998, Vengerov begun to study conducting with Vag Papian.
At the suggestion of
Trevor Pinnock, Vengerov spent two years studying
baroque violin.
They subsequently collaborated on a series of concerts. Vengerov has also studied the
viola, and performed as soloist on his recording of the Walton Viola Concerto, with Rostropovich conducting, as part of his new recording contract with EMI. Other recordings for EMI include the
Igor Stravinsky and
Rodion Shchedrin violin concerti.
In 2005, Vengerov took a nine-month sabbatical from his solo career, during which he learned jazz improvisation and the
electric violin.
[8] [9] He also learned to dance Argentine tango, with Sebastian Misse and Andrea Reyero. This led to a collaboration with the Israeli composer Benjamin Yusupov and the tango dancer Christiane Palha, in a new composition for Vengerov, the
Viola Tango Rock Concerto
,
which Vengerov and Palha premiered in May 2005 with the NDR Philharmonie in Hannover.
The filmmaker
Ken Howard documented Vengerov's sabbatical in what became a television program for
The South Bank Show
, and later an expanded film version of the program,
Living the Dream
. In spite of the announced sabbatical, Vengerov gave 50 recitals that year.
[10]
Vengerov had planned to present the Yusupov work at the 2007
BBC Proms. However, he cancelled that and other engagements, and dealt with a recurring shoulder injury. In the grand final of BBC 2's
Maestro (9 September), Vengerov stood in as guest judge for
Simone Young, who had a prior engagement.
In 2008, Vengerov announced that he was interrupting his violin career to focus on teaching and conducting
. Having reached the pinnacle of the musical world as an instrumentalist, Vengerov followed in the footsteps of his mentor, the late Mstislav Rostropovich and turned his attention to conducting, bringing his sensitivity and keen musicianship to the podium. At the invitation of Valery Gergiev, Maestro Vengerov has conducted the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, earning accolades both from the critics and the public.
Over the past few seasons, he has developed close relationships with Verbier Festival Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Sinfonietta Cracovia, et al. Maestro Vengerov's Carnegie Hall debut as a conductor, which took place during the 2007 Verbier Festival Orchestra tour of North America, received critical acclaim.
Maestro Vengerov has been profiled in a series of documentaries, including Playing by Heart, which was recorded by Channel Four Television and screened at the Cannes Television Festival in 1999, and Living the Dream, which was released worldwide and received the Gramophone Award for Best Documentary 2008. In September 2008 he was invited by the BBC to conduct the BBC concert orchestra and be a member of the jury in the Maestro Series, a program designed to give general public an insight into the fascinating profession of a conductor. Maestro regularly serves on juries, most recently at the Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition
Pedagogy
Vengerov has served as Professor of Violin at Saarbrücken University of Music (Hochschule für Musik Saar), Germany, succeeding Valerij Klimov. Through the summer of 2005, he had a regular teaching commitment, and reduced his concerts per year from approximately 130 to 55 in order to accommodate his teaching responsibilities.
Vengerov was appointed professor at the
Royal Academy of Music in
London in 2005. Other teaching activities include a summer on an Israeli kibbutz with the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra.
He has established a music school in Migdal, Israel.
References
- A Bravura Violinist Who Loves...Schubert?
- Maxim Vengerov: The showman
- A Fiddler Unfazed by the Brightest of Spotlights
- Keeping up with the fiddler on the hoof
- Fiddlers on the roof of the world
- A Life in the Day of Maxim Vengerov
- Never less than Maxim, not for a minim
- Last tango in Siberia
- Superhero of the classical scene
- Maxim Vengerov says he is putting down the violin, his 'mother tongue'