NIGEL KENNEDY violin - MUSIC BY BACH, FATS WALLER
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - Teatro La Versiliana, 21.30
He broke all barriers in classical music, and in in doing so, made quite a name for himself. He is the only living violinist who is totally at ease in the classical, jazz and rock worlds. His artistic integrity is an example for all musicians and his power to communicate his innovative musical message makes him a true wonder.
NIGEL KENNEDY
Nigel Kennedy is one of the world's leading violin virtuosos and is the most important violinist Britain has ever seen, as well as the best selling classical violinist of all time. His virtuoso technique, unique talent and mass appeal have brought fresh perspectives to both the classical and contemporary repertoire.
From a young age, he was Yehudi Menuhin’s protégé, studying first at the Menuhin School before moving to the Juilliard School of Music in New York to study under Dorothy DeLay. During his career, Nigel Kennedy has undertaken countless international tours, performing with the world's leading orchestras and conductors throughout Europe, North America, Central and South America, South East Asia and Australia.
Nigel Kennedy has been presented with many awards including Outstanding Contribution to British Music and Male Artist of the Year at the UK Brit Awards; in France a Vivement Dimanche Gold Award, numerous Echo Awards; in the USA Grammy Awards; Bambi in Germany and Switzerland’s Gold Rose of Montreux.
Kennedy's multi-award-winning discography is extensive. He first recorded Elgar's Violin Concerto, voted 1985 Record of the Year by Gramophone magazine and awarded Best Classical Album of the Year at the BPI Awards. His first landmark recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling classical work of all time. It sold in excess of 2 million copies and the album remained top of the UK classical charts for almost two years. His second Vivaldi volume with the Berliner Philharmoniker won the prestigious German Echo Award for Best Performance of 18th Century music and The Amadeus Prize, for Best Instrumental Recording. He has also made best-selling concerto recordings of Bach, Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Walton, alongside chamber music and recital discs. His passion for jazz resulted in the album "Blue Note Sessions", made under the eye of Grammy award winning producer Jay Newland, featuring a band of jazz giants such as Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette, amongst others.
In 2002, Kennedy was appointed Artistic Director of the Polish Chamber Orchestra, with whom he released Emil Mlynarski's Violin Concerto No 2 combined with Mieczyslaw Karlowicz's Violin Concerto in A major, under the title 'Polish Spirit' in 2007.
The Nigel Kennedy Quintet is at the centre of his music-making and the NKQ’s 2009 release, “A Very Nice Album”, a typically bold excursion into non-classical repertoire, was recorded with four of the most dynamic musicians on the Polish jazz scene. 2010 saw the NKQ release of mainly original Kennedy compositions, entitled SHHH! In May 2010, London’s South Bank Centre invited Nigel Kennedy to become Artistic Director of a major Polish weekend.
The violinist’s recently founded Orchestra of Life has a classical chamber group as its nucleus but is uniquely adaptable to perform different styles of music. In April 2010, it made its debut tour in Germany, presenting a programme of Duke Ellington and Bach, before going on to perform in major cities and festivals in Europe. Kennedy presented a programme inspired by the music of Jimi Hendrix at Ronnie Scotts on the 40th anniversary of the musician’s death.
Kennedy is currently undertaking an international tour, performing his exhilarating and unique new take (‘re-write’) on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as well as the première of his own brand new composition, the Four Elements, and the Bach PLUS series, an entirely acoustic concert. The first half of the programme consists of solo Bach and, for the second part, Kennedy has arranged the music of Fats Waller for violin, guitar, bass and percussion.
