Vladimir Jurowski & Frank Peter Zimmermann

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) since 2017. In 2023/2024, his concerts, tours and recordings were the highlights of the ‘RSB100’ anniversary season. His current contract in Berlin runs until 2029,
while he has also been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

Vladimir Jurowski, one of the most sought-after conductors of our time, who is celebrated worldwide for his innovative musical interpretations and equally for his courageous artistic commitment, was born in Moscow in 1972 and completed the first part of his music studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. He moved to Germany with his family in 1990 and continued his studies at the music academies in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995, he made his debut at the Wexford Festival in Ireland with Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Mainacht’ and in 1996 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with ‘Nabucco’. He was then First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997-2001).

Vladimir Jurowski worked as Chief Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) for fifteen years until 2021 and has since been appointed Conductor Emeritus. In the UK, he was Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 2001 to 2013, leading a wide range of highly acclaimed productions. His close connection to British musical life was recognised by King Charles III in spring 2024 when he appointed Vladimir Jurowski an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). In April 2024, Vladimir Jurowski returned to London as a guest conductor to complete the concert performance cycle of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ with ‘Götterdämmerung’ with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall.

He was Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra ‘Yevgeny Svetlanov’ of the Russian Federation until 2021 and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain, as well as Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. He has also worked with the unitedberlin ensemble for many years. Vladimir Jurowski has suspended performances in Russia since February 2022. Ukrainian works are and will remain part of his repertoire, as will works by Russian composers.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted concerts by the most important orchestras in Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. He is a regular guest at the music festivals in London, Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, SchleswigHolstein and Grafenegg. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, he now concentrates his activities on those geographical areas that he can easily reach with reasonable effort from an ecological point of view.

The joint CD recordings by Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and again Schnittke. Vladimir Jurowski has been honoured many times for his achievements, including numerous international record awards. In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Philharmonic Society from the hands of the current King Charles III. In 2020, Vladimir Jurowski’s work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival was honoured by the Romanian President with the Order of Cultural Merit.

Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. Praised for
his selfless musicality, his brilliance and keen intelligence he has been performing with all major orchestras
in the world for well over three decades, collaborating on these occasions with the world’s most renowned
conductors. His many concert engagements take him to all important concert venues and international
music festivals in Europe, the United States, Asia, South America and Australia.

Highlights during the 2021/22 season include a residency with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and
Jonathan Nott, as well as engagements with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Klaus
Mäkelä, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Manfred Honeck, the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub
Hrůša and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Staatskapelle Berlin, both with Daniele Gatti.

With pianist Martin Helmchen he is performing the complete or partial Beethoven sonata cycle in various
major cities in Europe. BIS Records has meanwhile released the complete cycle on 3 CDs.

In 2010 he formed the Trio Zimmermann with viola player Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra; the
trio has been performing in all major music centres and festivals in Europe. BIS Records released awardwinning
CD recordings of works for string trio by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg and
Hindemith.

Over the years Frank Peter Zimmermann has built up an impressive discography for EMI Classics, Sony
Classical, BIS Records, hänssler CLASSIC, Ondine, Decca, Teldec Classics and ECM Records. He has
recorded virtually all major concerto repertoire, ranging from Bach to Ligeti, as well as recital repertoire.
Many of these highly acclaimed recordings have received prestigious awards and prizes worldwide. Most
recent releases include the two violin concertos of Martinů with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub
Hrůša, coupled with the solo sonata of Bartók (BIS); the two violin concertos of Shostakovich with the NDR
Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert (BIS; nominated for a Grammy Award); and the violin
concertos of J.S. Bach with the Berliner Barock Solisten (hänssler CLASSIC). In September 2021 the Berliner
Philharmoniker released a special CD on its own label with Mr. Zimmermann’s performances of the Bartók,
Beethoven and Berg concertos under conductors Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding and Kirill Petrenko resp.

He received a number of special prizes and honours, among which the “Premio del Accademia Musicale
Chigiana, Siena” (1990), the “Rheinischer Kulturpreis” (1994), the “Musikpreis” of the city of Duisburg
(2002), the “Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (2008) and the “Paul-
Hindemith-Preis der Stadt Hanau” (2010).
Mr. Zimmermann has given four world premieres: Magnus Lindberg’s violin concerto no. 2 with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden (2015) with further performances with the Berliner
Philharmoniker and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, both under Daniel Harding and with the New
York Philharmonic and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, both under Alan Gilbert. He also
premiered the violin concerto “en sourdine” by Matthias Pintscher with the Berliner Philharmoniker and
Peter Eötvös (2003), the violin concerto “The Lost Art of Letter Writing” by Brett Dean, who received the
2009 Grawemeyer Award for this composition, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by the
composer (2007) and the violin concerto no. 3 “Juggler in Paradise” by Augusta Read Thomas with the
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Andrey Boreyko (2009).

Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, Mr. Zimmermann started playing the violin when he was 5 years old,
giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and
Herman Krebbers.

Mr. Zimmermann plays on the 1711 Antonio Stradivari violin “Lady Inchiquin”, which is kindly provided by
the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, “Kunst im Landesbesitz”.