At 29, Maxim Vengerov is one of the most exciting violinists in the worls. He has mastered the two facets of the violin, expressiveness and agility. His elegant, fearless playing is spectacular—but it is a spectacle that comes from the heart and touches the heart.
At five, he gave his first recital in his native city of Novosibirsk (Siberia). At ten, he won the first prize for juniors at the Wieniawski Competition in Poland. In 1990, at 15, his first prize at the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition confirmed his reputation as a musician of the first order.
The very demanding English magazine Gramophone crowned him Young Artist of the Year in 1996 and awarded the title « Best of the Year » to his recording of the First Concertos of Shostakovich and Prokofiev.
In 1997, his interpretation of the Second Concerto by the same composers won him an Edison Award for Best Concert of the. He won this award again in 2003 for his solo CD of the works of Bach, Ysaÿe.
In 2002, Gramophone crowned him Artist of the Year. In 2004, he won the Grammy Award for the Best Performance by a Solo Instrument (with orchestra) for Walton’s Violin Concerto and Britten’s Concerto for Alto.
Maxim Vengerov does not live only for music. He is far from the image of the capricious and egocentric maestro. He is concerned to link his art to the world and to its suffering. In 1997, at 23 years of age, he was the first classical musician named Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF. To help finance aid programs for children, he has played before children all over the world : kidnapped former child soldiers in Uganda, poor children in Harlem, child drug addicts in Thailand, children on both sides of the ethnic divide in Kosovo. In South Africa, he has worked with children in difficulty to develop a musical project called MIAGI (Music Is A Great Investment). « I have learned what miracles music can bring to children. It is a universal language that everyone understands, from heart to heart. »
He has found this universality, for example, in performing John Williams’ music for Schindler’s List.
Vengerov’s other passion with young people is his Master Class, which has been filmed by Channel Four for the documentary « Playing by Heart » (Cannes, Midem 1999). He also teaches at the Musikhochschule of Saarland in Germany.
His solo tours have led him around Europe and the United States. He opened the 2004-2005 season with the New York Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. He has begun to direct with the English Chamber Orchestra.
For him, the greatest compliment is « for someone to hear me play and then call the next day to say, ‘Maxim, Maxim, I feel better today !’ »
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