Biography

Still in her mid-twenties, Baiba Skride has appeared with such orchestras as the Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk, Munich Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Residentie Orkest and the US orchestras of Philadelphia, Houston, Cincinnati and Detroit. Conductors Skride regularly collaborates with include Charles Dutoit, Thierry Fischer, Mark Janowski, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Mikhail Pletnev, John Storgårds and with her peers, Mikko Franck, Andris Nelsons and Kirill Petrenko.

Summer 2009 will see her make her Edinburgh International Festival debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Donald Runnicles. At Germany?s Rheingau Music Festival she will appear twice, with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Sakari Oramo as well as part of a chamber music tour, starting at the MDR Musiksommer.

Highlights in Skride?s 2009/10 season include an extensive tour of Germany with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons as well as appearances with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Thierry Fischer, Northern Sinfonia and Mario Venzago as well as with the Dresdner Philharmonie, Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Slovenska Filharmonic.

In the USA Skride returns to the Houston Symphony with Yan-Pascal Tortelier and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under John Storgårds, on this occasion joined by her sister Lauma Skride and Jan Vogler in a performance of Beethoven Triple.

Towards the end of the Mendelssohn anniversary year, Skride plays the Double Concerto with her long-established duo partner Lauma Skride with the Züricher Kammerorchester and Warsaw Philharmonic. Recital appearances include Basel, Frankfurt, a return to Tokyo, Osaka as well as to San Francisco and Cincinnati. In trio she can be heard with new member cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, after their recent success in Bayreuth, Salzburg and Graz.

Skride has been recording for Sony Classical since 2004. Her highly praised discography was recently highlighted with a Tchaikovsky CD with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons. She released a first duo recording with her sister (Schubert, Beethoven, Ravel) as well as a solo violin disc (Ysaye, Bartok, Bach) and two concerto discs (Mozart, Schubert, Michael Haydn and Shostakovich, Janacek).

Baiba Skride was born into a musical Latvian family in Riga where she began her studies, transferring in 1995 to the Conservatory of Music and Theatre in Rostock. In 2001 she won the 1st prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

Baiba Skride plays the Stradivarius "Wilhelmj" violin (1725), which is generously on loan to her from the Nippon Music Foundation, with whom she will be on tour in Graz, Firenze and Paris.