Ilya Gringolts
The winner of the Paganini International Violin Competition in 1998, the Russian virtuoso with a Swiss passport, Ilya Gringolts, also won two special prizes, for the youngest competitor to reach the finals, as well as for the best performer of Paganini’s 24 Capriccios for solo violin. He studied violin and composition in St. Petersburg in the classes of professors Tatiana Liberova and Jeanne Metallide, and at the prestigious Julliard School of Music in New York he studied with Itzhak Perlman.
Ilya Gringolts, violin
Ilya Gringolts has performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, the NDR Orchestra from Hannover, the Halle Orchestra, the Birmingham and Liverpool Symphony Orchestras, the Israel Philharmonic, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the São Paulo Orchestra and many others. He played on major tours throughout Europe, Asia and Australia. He often gives recitals around the world, and as a chamber musician, he collaborates with Yuri Bashmet, Lynn Harrell, Diemut Poppen, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Itamar Golan and many others and is the founder of the Gringolts String Quartet.
He recorded works by Paganini, Ysay, Schnittke, Ernst, as well as his own compositions for the publishing house Bis. He recorded works by Sibelius, Prokofiev and Bach for Deutsche Grammophon, and he also recorded for the Onyx publishing house. His discography releases have received multiple awards and are extremely well received by the audience and critics.
In the summer of 2020, together with Ilan Volkova, he founded the I&I Foundation for the promotion of contemporary music, which honors young composers.
In addition to the position of professor at the Art Academy in Zurich, Ilya Gringolts was appointed in 2021 at the prestigious Chigiana Academy in Sienna.
He plays on Stradivari’s ex-Prové violin from 1718.