Vadim Repin
Considered as one of the greatest living violinist, at 16 he was the youngest ever winner of the most prestigious and demanding violin competition in the world, the Concous Reine Elisabeth. In 2010 he was awarded the Victoire d’Honneur, France’s most prestigious musical award, and he also became Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres.
Born in Siberia in 1971, he won all categories of the Wienawski competition at the age of eleven. Immediately afterwards, he made his debuts in Moscow and St. Petersburg and, at the age of 14, in Tokyo, Munich, Berlin and Helsinki, a year later at Carnegie Hall. At the age of 17, he was the youngest winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition and has since performed with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors in all the major music venues. His list of stage partners includes illustrious conductors such as Ashkenazy, Boulez, Chailly, Chung, Dohnányi, Dutoit, Gergiev, Jansons, Levine, Mehta, Muti, Nagano, Ozawa, Temirkanov and Thielemann, and chamber musicians such as Argerich, Bartoli, Capuçon, Golan, Kissin, Knyazev, Korobeinikov, Lang Lang, Lugansky and Maisky. He has recorded much of the violin repertoire for labels such as Warner Classics and Deutsche Grammophon with artists including Martha Argerich, the Vienna Philharmonic, Riccardo Muti, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mischa Maisky and Lang Lang.
Music education plays an important role in the life of Vadim Repin, who has given master classes for young violinists at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and served on the jury of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels.
In April 2014, he founded the annual Transsiberian Arts Festival, which continues to be enthusiastically received in Novosibirsk and many Russian cities, as well as in Japan, Israel, Vienna, the USA and France, and has been the venue for the world premieres of violin concertos dedicated to him: “Voices of Violin” by Benjamin Yussupov, “De Profundis” by Lera Auerbach, “Ex Oriente Lux” by Alexander Raskatov, the Violin Concerto by Ilya Demutsky, “Dialogue: You and I” by Sofia Gubaidulina (recorded for Deutsche Grammophon with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons). He recently premiered Arvo Pärt’s revised version of ‘The Shroud’ to which the composer, on the occasion of his 85th birthday, added a solo violin part for Vadim Repin.
During a European tour with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, he performed the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s double concerto ‘Shadow Walker’ together with Daniel Hope.
Vadim Repin plays a 1664 Niccolò Amati violin.