Nikolai ZNAIDER, violin (Denmark)

Not just an outstanding technique, but also a dynamic expertise of unique expressiveness" - these qualities were attributed to violinist Nikolai Znaider for his latest CD recording featuring the concertos of Max Bruch and Carl Nielsen. His violin playing, said the magazine "Strad", is "reminiscent of the good old days of great violin artistry". Born in 1975 as the son of Polish-Israeli parents in Denmark, he began his studies with Milan Vitek at the Royal Danish Conservatory. After winning the first prize at the 1992 Carl Nielsen Competition, he perfected his training with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Above and beyond this, Nikolai Znaider has studied since 1994 with the renowned violin teacher Boris Kuschnir at the Vienna Conservatory. He first attracted international notice in 1997 when he won the first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Since then, the artist described by Lord Yehudi Menuhin as "the successor to Ysaye" is in great demand world-wide as a soloist and chamber musician. In February of this year a tour with the London Symphony Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovitch took him to Japan. Further highlights in his career have included appearances with major international orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Koninklijke Concertgebouw Orkest ub Ansterdam, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, the Munich and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestras as well as the Philhadelphia Orchestra, with which he made his debut in New Yorkґs Carnegie Hall. His musical partners have included such luminaries as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Herbert Blomstedt, Sir Colin Davis, Neeme Jarvi, Kurt Masur, Mstislaw Rostropovitch, Mariss Jansons and Yuri Temirkanov. Nikolaj Znajder plays a violin built by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu in 1732, placed at his disposal by Machold Rare Violins. The artist was most recently heard at a special benefit concert for the Orchestra Academy with Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto as guest of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He also recorded this concerto with the Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mariss Jansons along with the Glazunov Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Meditation Opus 42 on a CD which is soon to be released. Nikolai Znaider is an exclusive BMG/RCA Victor Red Seal Artist.