Grammy Award winner Maxim Vengerov (b. 1974) is one of the finest violinists and most respected classical artists of our time and also enjoys international acclaim as a conductor. He won the prestigious Henryk Wieniawski Competition at the age of ten and the international Carl Flesch Violin Competition five years later. He also recorded his first studio recording at the age of ten. Maxim Vengerov was initially taught by Galina Turchaninova and was one of the eleven who followed legendary violin teacher Zakhar Bron to the Musikhochschule Lübeck in the early 1990s, but Vengerov was among the few who achieved lasting success. He made a number of recordings for well-known labels such as Melodia, Teldec and EMI, for which he received a Grammy Award, a Classical Brit Award, five Edison Classic Awards, two ECHO Klassik Awards and was named Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine. Collaborations with outstanding conductors such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Daniel Barenboim contributed to his artistic development. Vengerov also studied conducting with Vag Papian. In early 2007, he suffered an injury to his right arm, which caused him to take a break as a soloist for a while and perform only as a conductor. Since September 2010 he has been performing again as a violinist. Maxim Vengerov plays on a legendary instrument, the "ex-Kreutzer" Stradivarius of 1727. In recent years he has performed both as soloist and conductor with
many major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, and the Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto Symphony Orchestras. Highlights of the 2018/19 season included the season opening performance of the Filarmonica della Scala Orchestra with Riccardo Chailly, as well as numerous recitals in the United States, China and Europe. He also served as Artist in Residence with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and at the Paris Philharmonic. The Salzburg Festival presented Maxim Vengerov together with pianist Polina Osetinskaya in a soloist concert at the end of July 2019. Maxim Vengerov is passionate about training and nurturing young talent. He has held a variety of teaching positions worldwide and serves as an ambassador and visiting professor at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland. In the fall of 2016, he also assumed the Polonsky Visiting Professorship at the Royal College of Music in London. The artistic personality of Maxim Vengerov is illuminated by several documentaries, including "Playing by Heart" for Channel Four, shown at the 1999 Cannes Television Festival, and "Living the Dream," winner of the 2008 Gramophone Award for Best Documentary.
