David Geringas

David Geringas (Lithuanian: Dovydas Geringas; born 29 July 1946 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian cellist and conductor who studied under Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1970 he won the gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He also plays the baryton, a rare instrument associated with music of Joseph Haydn.[1]

Biography

David Geringas has performed as soloist with the greatest orchestras around the globe, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Czech Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, NHK Symphony and Israel Philharmonic, under such esteemed conductors of our time as Gerd Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Andrey Boreyko, Myung-whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Lawrence Foster, Valery Gergiev, Paavo Järvi, Kirill Kondrashin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Yuri Temirkanov, Klaus Tennstedt and Michael Tilson Thomas. He is a regular guest at several major chamber music festival and has a vast repertoire, from baroque to contemporary music, much of which he has recorded, being awarded the Grand Prix du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy in 1989. He is a cello professor in Berlin.

Important contemporary composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Pēteris Vasks and Erkki-Sven Tüür have dedicated new compositions to Geringas. In July 2006, Anatolijus Senderovas' composition "David's Song for Cello and String Quartet" was premièred in Kronberg – a dedication to Geringas's 60th birthday.

David Geringas is one of the most versatile musicians of our time. The cellist and conductor has an unusually broad repertoire from the earliest baroque up to contemporary music. He was the first musician to play in the West works of the Russian and Lithuanian avant garde and many composers dedicated works to him. For his worldwide engagement for Lithuanian music and its composers he was awarded highest distinctions of his country. In October 2006 the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Horst Köhler awarded the "Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (Federal Cross of Merit) to David Geringas for his overall efforts as musician and German Cultural Ambassador to the world music scene.

Born in Vilnius, Lithuania, David Geringas studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1963 until 1973 with Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1970 David Geringas won the First Prize and the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky competition. In 2000 he took over a professorship of cello at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. Moreover, he is honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory. David Geringas also heads various master-classes all over the world for the up-and-coming musicians. His students are winners of prizes and awards of international competitions.

Renowned composers of contemporary music dedicated works to David Geringas, thus the Concerto in Do by Anatolijus Šenderovas, being played by David Geringas for the first time in 2002 and being awarded the European Composers Prize in Berlin, the Cello Concerto by Ned Rorem, world premiere 2003 in the US, the Cello Concertos by Vytautas Laurušas and by Vidmantas Bartulis, world premiere 2004 respective 2005 in Lithuania. A special event was the world premiere of Anatolijus Šenderovas' work "David's Song for Cello and String Quartet" in July 2006 in Kronberg which the composer had written on the occasion of David Geringas' 60th birthday.

He has been teaching at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena since 2005.

David Geringas' concerts with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Berner Symphonie-Orchester, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra as well as his first performance with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at once being reinvited for 2007, belong among others to the highlights of the concert season 2005/2006. He was also guest at prestigious festivals in Germany, Great Britain and France this summer. In the season 2006/2007 David Geringas will give concerts among others with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, the Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim and the Galicia Symphony Orchestra. On the occasion of D. Shostakovich's 100th Birthday David Geringas is invited by the Tonhalle Düsseldorf to arrange and to head a weekend of several performances dedicated to the composer.[2][3][4][5][6]

Discography

For about 50 CDs which David Geringas has up to now recorded he received a large number of distinctions, among them the Grand Prix du Disque for the recording of the 12 cello concerti by Luigi Boccherini. His extensive discography also includes many award-winning recordings such as the chamber music by Henri Dutilleux (Diapason d'Or) or the cello concertos by Hans Pfitzner (Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik).[7][8]

Chamber music

David Geringas is also a welcome guest at international chamber music stages. So Tatjana Geringas and Ian Fountain belong to his closest partners on the piano. In the season 2004/2005 David Geringas gave together with Ian Fountain a concert series entitled "Beethoven plus…" at the Philharmonie Berlin. He also works closely together with the Artemis Quartett, the Vogler-Quartett and the Bläserquintett of the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Conducting

To an ever-growing extent David Geringas has been engaged as conductor. Among others he conducted the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, the Kammerphilharmonie of the MDR Leipzig, the Jenaer Philharmonie, the chamber orchestra of the Wiener Symphoniker (Concert-Verein), the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR, das Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica as well as orchestras in Lithuania, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico and Costa Rica. In February 2007 David Geringas will conduct for the first time the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, give his debut as conductor in China in the 2007/2008 season and will be guest again in Japan.

For his first CD recording as conductor he received the 'Choc de la Musique' of the music magazine Le Monde de la musique.

Since 2005 David Geringas has been Chief Guest Conductor of the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra.

Cello

David Geringas plays a G. B. Guadagnini cello made in 1761.

References
  1. Lewis, Uncle Dave. "Biography: David Geringas". Allmusic. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  2. imgartists.com
  3. naxos.com
  4. allmusic.com
  5. piatigorskyfestival.usc.edu
  6. bach-cantatas.com, Bio:Geringas-David
  7. discogs.com
  8. bach-cantatas.com

Sources
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