Vadim Repin

Vadim Repin was born in Novosibirsk, Western Siberia, on 31 August 1971. He began to play the violin at the age of five with Dmitry Vaks, on the initiative of which two years later he moved to study with Zakhar Bron, the famous violin teacher. At only eleven, he won the gold medal in all age categories in the International Competition for Young Violinists in Honor of Karol Lipinski and Henryk Wieniawski held in Lublin and gave his recital débuts in Moscow and St Petersburg. In 1985 at fourteen he made his débuts in Tokyo, München, Berlin, Helsinki; a year later in Carnegie Hall.

At the age of 17, he became the youngest winner of violin section of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels, the world's premier violin competition . He was a member of the jury in the 2009 violin section of this competition.[5]

Vadim Repin has played under such leading conductors as Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, and Yehudi Menuhin. He has also played with Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas (with whom he made his United Kingdom debut at The Lichfield Festival in 1985), James Levine, Kurt Masur, Edo de Waart, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mstislav Rostropovich, Myung-whun Chung and Riccardo Muti.

Repin has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. He regularly collaborates with Nikolai Lugansky and Itamar Golan in recital; other chamber music partners include Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang and Mischa Maisky.

Vadim Repin has been a frequent guest at festivals such as the BBC Proms, Tanglewood, Gstaad and Verbier.[6] In 2010 he played the premiere of James MacMillan Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Gergiev which was dedicated to him.[7]

Repin specializes in Russian music and French music, particularly the great Russian violin concertos, as well as 20th-century and contemporary music. New music in his répertoire includes works by John Adams, Lera Auerbach and Sofia Gubaidulina.

He has recorded violin concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Nikolai Myaskovsky. Repin has also made two CDs of violin and piano music works with Boris Berezovsky and has recorded chamber music with pianists Martha Argerich and Mikhail Pletnev, violist Yuri Bashmet, and cellist Mischa Maisky. In 2010, Repin recorded an album of violin sonatas with pianist Nikolai Lugansky.

The majority of Repin's recordings through 2005 were on the Erato label. However, in 2005 Repin appeared on Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on a disc of chamber music by Sergei Taneyev alongside Mikhail Pletnev, Ilya Gringolts, Nobuko Imai, and Lynn Harrell; and in April 2006 Repin signed an exclusive recording contract with DG.

• 1982-1984 a unique Stradivari three-quarter size on loan from the Russian State Collection
• 1984–1989 Stradivari 1720 "ex-Wieniawski-Wieniawski" on loan from the Russian State Collection
• 1996 Repin played shortly the Guarneri del Gesù 1737 "Isaac Stern ex-Panette-Panette," a loan by David Fulton
• 1996–2005 Stradivari 1708 "Ruby",[8] as a loan by the Stradivari Society in Chicago and previously played by Pablo de Sarasate
• 2005 Guarneri del Gesù 1742 "Il Cannone ex Paganini" as a loan by the Municipal Administration of Genua for the use in a concert in the city
• 2002-2009 Guarneri del Gesù 1736 "Von Szerdahely"
• 2010-2013 Guarneri del Gesù 1743 "Bonjour"
• 2013-2015 Guarneri del Gesù 1736 "Lafont"
• Since 2015 Vadim Repin plays a Guarneri del Gesù 1733 "Rode"

His preferred bows are by Nicolaus Kittel and Nicolas Maline.

Vadim Repin married Caroline Diemunsch in 2001. Their son Leonardo was born in 2006.[9]

His current partner[10] is Svetlana Zakharova, the principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet.[11] They have a daughter, who was born in February 2011.[12]

• Official website
• Vadim Repin Biography
• Vadim Repin Homepage, unofficial website, very comprehensive
• Discography, up to Octobre 2010
• Biography of Vadim Repin, Productions Internationales Albert Sarfati
• Biography of Vadim Repin, Columbia Artists Management Inc.