For Jazz Lovers
Sunday, 2007 November 25th, 7 PM
Great Guild Hall
From Fritz to Django
BENI SCHMID ( violin, Austria)
Stian Carstensen (accordeon)
Georg Breinschmid (bass)
 
Born in Vienna, Benjamin Schmid studied in Salzburg, Vienna and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Over the next several years, Schmid went on to win further competitions, culminating in 1992 with the Carl Flesch Competition where he also won the Mozart Prize, the Beethoven Prize and the Audience Prize.
Benjamin Schmid's repertoire is extremely broad and, as well as regularly performing all the major works for violin and orchestra, Viennese Masters – Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Berg, Goldmark, Korngold, Kreisler, Gulda and Muthspiel – are at its very core. Each year Schmid allocates a proportion of his time to playing chamber music: favourite partners are pianists Ariane Haering (Mozart recitals at the Salzburg Festival and the Klavier Festival Ruhr) and Alfredo Perl, with whom he recently performed the Beethoven violin sonatas at the Wigmore Hall, as well as Sabine Meyer or Pieter Wispelwey. The Strad-Magazine wrote of "a masterclass in the many arts of duo-playing".
The violinist plays with leading orchestras: Vienna Philharmonic, Concertgebouworchester Amsterdam, RSO Wien, Czech Philharmonic as well as a tour with the SWR Symphonie-Orchester under Michael Gielen, a European tour with the Wroclaw Philharmonic; as well as appearances with the Gulbenkian Orchester Lissabon, the Wiener Symphoniker, the symphonic orchestras of Hongkong und Singapur, the Royal Danish Orchestra Copenhagen, the symphonic orchestras of Johannesburg und Capetown; the Wiener Kammerorchester, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra….; in centers of musical life like the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Hamburg Musikhalle, Wiener Musikverein as well as Wiener Konzerthaus, Köln and Essen Philharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich, Prague Rudolphinum, BBC Manchester, Festspielhaus Salzburg and many more.
Benjamin Schmid also worked with the following orchestras: Philharmonia Orchestra London, CLSO London, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, English Chamber Orchester, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, New Japan Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Radiosymphonieorchester of Vienna, Copenhagen and Moscow, Bavarian State Orchestra; as well as the symphonic orchestras of Washington, Houston, Baltimore, Indianapolis and Calgary.
Benjamin Schmid is very fond of jazz: his lifelong second musical passion led to the highly successful concert project "Hommage à Grappelli", which features Biréli Lagrène on guitar.
In addition to four recordings devoted to the music of J S Bach, Benjamin Schmid has recorded the concertos of Brahms, Mozart, Korngold, Goldmark, Bruch, Britten, Gulda, the Kreisler-Paganini, the "Four Seasons" of Vivaldi, the six Ysaye Sonatas for solo violin, an album entitled Pièces de Concert, the Paganini caprices with Schumann's piano accompaniment, the Mozart and Beethoven Violin sonatas as well as the jazz release "Hommage à Grappelli" for Oehms Classics and Sony Music.
Some of these recordings won international acclaim, such as Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, Grammophone Editor's Choice, Echo Klassik Preis, Strad Selection, etc.
The outstanding musical activities of Benjamin Schmid resulted 2005 in a film portrait directed by Tony Palmer.
In the Mozartyear 2006 Benjamin Schmid was awarded the "Internationaler Preis für Kunst und Kultur der Stadt Salzburg".
Benjamin Schmid plays on a Stradivari 1731 of the Donald Kahn Foundation.
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