The Royal Academy of Music is a conservatoire in London, England and a constituent college of the University of London. Founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas Bochsa, it is Britain's oldest degree-granting music school.^[2] The Academy was granted a Royal Charter by King George IV in 1830.^[3] It is a registered charity under English law.^[4]

Campus and location[link]

The facade of the Royal Academy of Music

The Academy's current facilities are situated on Marylebone Road in central London^[5] adjacent to Regent's Park. The Academy's first building was in Tenterden Street, Hanover Square^[6] and in 1911 the institution moved to the current premises (which include the 450-seat Duke's Hall),^[6] built at a cost of £51,000 on the site of an orphanage.^[7] In 1976 the Academy acquired the houses situated on the north side and built between them a new opera theatre donated by the philanthropist Sir Jack Lyons and named after him and two new recital spaces, a recording studio, an electronic music studio, several practice rooms and office space.^[8]

The Academy again expanded its facilities in the late 1990s, with the addition of 1-5 York Gate, designed by John Nash in 1822,^[9] to house the new museum, a musical theatre studio and several teaching and practice rooms. To link the main building and 1-5 York Gate a new underground passage and the underground barrel-vaulted 150-seat David Josefowitz recital hall were built on the courtyard between the mentioned structures.^[10]

Teaching[link]

The Royal Academy of Music offers training from infant level (Junior Academy), with the senior Academy awarding the LRAM diploma, BMus and higher degrees to Ph.D.^[11] The former Graduate Diploma GRSM, equivalent to a university honours degree and taken by some students, was phased out in the 1990s. All undergraduates now take the University of London degree of B.Mus..

Most Academy students are classical performers: strings, piano, vocal studies including opera, brass, woodwind, conducting and choral conducting, composition, percussion, harp, organ, accordion, guitar. There are also departments for musical theatre performance and jazz.

The Academy collaborates with other conservatoires worldwide, including participating in the SOCRATES student and staff exchange programme. In 1991, the Academy introduced a fully accredited degree in Performance Studies, and in September 1999, it became a full constituent college of the University of London, in both cases becoming the first UK conservatoire to do so.^[12]

The Academy has students from over 50 countries, following diverse programmes including instrumental performance, conducting, composition, jazz, musical theatre and opera. The Academy has an established relationship with King's College London, particularly the Department of Music, whose students receive instrumental tuition at the Academy. In return, many students at the Academy take a range of Humanities choices at King's, and its extended academic musicological curriculum.

The Junior Academy, for pupils under the age of 18, takes place every Saturday.

Library and archives[link]

The Academy's library contains over 160,000 items, including significant collections of early printed and manuscript materials and audio facilities. The library also houses archives dedicated to Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir Henry Wood.^[13] Among the Library's most valuable possessions are the manuscripts of Purcell's The Fairy-Queen, Sullivan's The Mikado, Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Serenade to Music, and the newly discovered Handel Gloria.^[14] A grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund has assisted in the purchase of the Robert Spencer Collection — a set of Early English Song and Lute music, as well as a fine collection of lutes and guitars. The Academy's museum displays many of these items. The Orchestral Library has approximately 4,500 sets of orchestral parts. Other collections include the libraries of Sir Henry Wood and Otto Klemperer.^[15]

Harriet Cohen bequeathed a large collection of paintings, some photographs and her gold bracelet to the Academy, with a request that the room in which the paintings were to be housed was named the "Arnold Bax Room". Noted for her performances of Bach and modern English music, she was a friend and advocate of Arnold Bax and also premièred Vaughan Williams' Piano Concerto - a work dedicated to her - in 1933. In 1886, Franz Liszt performed at the Academy to celebrate the creation of the Franz Liszt Scholarship^[16] and in 1843 Mendelssohn was made an honorary member of the Academy.^[16]

Student performances and festivals[link]

Academy students perform regularly in the Academy's concert venues, and also nationally and internationally under conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Christoph von Dohnányi, the late Sir Charles Mackerras and Trevor Pinnock. In September 2005, Davis conducted an orchestra which combined students from the Academy and New York's Juilliard School at the Proms.^[17]

The Academy regularly celebrates the work of a living composer with a festival in the presence of the composer. Previous composer festivals at the Academy have been devoted to the work of Witold Lutosławski, Michael Tippett, Krzysztof Penderecki, Olivier Messiaen, Hans Werner Henze, Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, as well as Academy graduates, Alfred Schnittke, György Ligeti, British and American film composers^[who?], Franco Donatoni, Galina Ustvolskaya, Arvo Pärt, György Kurtág and Mauricio Kagel.

In February–March 2006, an Academy festival celebrated the violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who first visited London 175 years earlier in 1831. The festival included a recital by Academy professor Maxim Vengerov, who performed on Il Cannone Guarnerius, Paganini's favorite violin.^[18] Academy instrumentalists and musical theatre students have also performed in a series of concerts with the Academy alumnus Sir Elton John.^[19]

The students and ensembles of the Royal Academy of Music perform in other venues around London including Kings Place,^[20] St Marylebone Parish Church and the South Bank Centre.

Museum and collections[link]

The Academy's public museum is situated in the York Gate building, which is connected to the Academy's building via a basement link. The museum houses the Academy's collections, including a major collection of Cremonese stringed instruments dated between 1650 and 1740, a selection of historical English pianos from 1790 to 1850, from the famous Mobbs Collection, original manuscripts by Purcell, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, Sullivan and Vaughan Williams, musical memorabilia and other exhibits.^[21]

People[link]

Alumni[link]

Former students include John Barbirolli, Harrison Birtwistle, Dennis Brain, Maxwell Fernie, Katherine Jenkins, Clifford Curzon, Lesley Garrett, Evelyn Glennie, Elton John, Annie Lennox, Moura Lympany, Michael Nyman, Simon Rattle, Arthur Sullivan, Eva Turner, Maxim Vengerov and Henry Wood.

Academics and staff[link]

The current principal of the Academy is Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, appointed in July 2008^[22] and the president is the Duchess of Gloucester.^[23] Diana, Princess of Wales was the president of the Academy from 1985 until 1996.^[24]

Prizes and honorary awards[link]

The Royal Academy of Music publishes every year a list of persons who have been selected to be awarded one of the Royal Academy’s honorary awards. These awards are for alumni who have distinguished themselves within the music profession (Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (FRAM)), distinguished musicians who are not alumni (Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon RAM)), alumni who have made a significant contribution to the music profession (Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM)) and to people who are not alumni but have offered important services to the institution (Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon ARAM)). The Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon FRAM) is awarded by the Governing Body of the Academy. As a full member of the University of London, the Academy can nominate people to the University of London Honorary Doctor degree (Hon DMus).^[25]

The Royal Academy of Music manages the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize (sponsored by the Kohn Foundation), a music award to musicians or scholars who have made an important contribution to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.^[26]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Royal Academy of Music

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Coordinates: 51°31′25″N 0°09′07″W / 51.52361°N 0.15194°W / 51.52361; -0.15194

Academy of Music may refer to:

• Academy of Music (Baltimore), Maryland
• Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary
• Academy of Music, a defunct theater in Charleston, South Carolina. See Academy of Music/Riviera Theatre.
• Academy of Music (New York City) in Manhattan
  • A second Academy of Music in Manhattan, renamed the Palladium
• Academy of Music (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania
• Academy of Music (Lynchburg, Virginia)
• Academy of Music Theatre, Northampton, Massachusetts
• The Academy of Music, Raleigh, North Carolina
• Baku Academy of Music, Azerbaijan
• Boston Academy of Music, Massachusetts
• Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City
• London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art at the University of Kent
• Royal Academy of Music in London, England
• Royal Academy of Music (company) by G.F. Handel
• Royal Irish Academy of Music, a college within Dublin City University, Ireland
• Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland
• Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Sweden
• Sarajevo Music Academy
• Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Czech Republic

See also[link]

• Academy of Ancient Music in Cambridge, England

This disambiguation page lists articles about schools, colleges, or other educational institutions which are associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Royal Academy of Arts
Established	1768
Location	Piccadilly, London W1, U.K.
Visitor figures	1,267,784 (2009)[1] Ranked 11th nationally
President	Christopher Le Brun
Public transit access	Piccadilly Circus
Website	royalacademy.org.uk

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate.

History[link]

The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through a personal act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. The motive in founding the Academy was twofold: to raise the professional status of the artist by establishing a sound system of training and expert judgment in the arts and to arrange the exhibition of contemporary works of art attaining an appropriate standard of excellence. Behind this concept was the desire to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation and interest in the public based on recognised canons of good taste.

Fashionable taste in 18th century Britain had centered on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, provided an early venue for contemporary artists to show their work in Britain. The success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies and their initial success was marred by internal fractions amongst the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a national school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries supplanting the earlier art societies.

Sir William Chambers used his connections with King George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy and the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds was made its first President.

The Instrument of Foundation of the Royal Academy signed by King George III on 10 December 1768 named 34 Founder Members and allowed for a total membership of 40. The Founder Members were Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, Thomas Sandby, Francis Cotes, John Baker, Mason Chamberlin, John Gwynn, Thomas Gainsborough, Giovanni Battista Cipriani, Jeremiah Meyer, Francis Milner Newton, Paul Sandby, Francesco Bartolozzi, Charles Catton, Nathaniel Hone the Elder, William Tyler, Nathaniel Dance, Richard Wilson (painter), George Michael Moser, Samuel Wale, Peter Toms, Angelica Kauffman, Richard Yeo, Mary Moser, William Chambers, Joseph Wilton, George Barret, Edward Penny, Augustino Carlini, Francis Hayman, Dominic Serres, John Richards, Francesco Zuccarelli, George Dance. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as Nominated Members. Amongst the Founder Members were two women, a father and daughter and two sets of brothers.

Study for Henry Singleton's painting The Royal Academicians assembled in their council chamber to adjudge the Medals to the successful students in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Drawing, which hangs in the Royal Academy. Ca. 1793.

The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, London although in 1771 it was accorded temporary accommodation for its Library and Schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments on the Strand front of New Somerset House, which had been designed by Sir William Chambers, the Academy's first treasurer. The Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery (designed by another Academician, William Wilkins). These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions and in 1868, 100 years after the Academy's foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it is to this day.

The first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, was held on 25 April 1769 and ran through until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 The Royal Academy expanded its exhibition program to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters' following the cessation of a similar annual exhibition of Old Masters' held by the British Institution. The range and frequency of these loan exhibitions has grown enormously since that time making the Royal Academy a leading art exhibition institution of international importance.

Britain's first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, as a way of better fulfilling its mission. A programme led by the Academy's first President, Sir Joshua Reynolds, but also including famed lectures by Dr. William Hunter. John Flaxman, James Barry. Sir John Soane and J.M.W. Turner. The latter three were all graduates of the RA Schools, for a long time the only established art school in the country.

Activities[link]

The Royal Academy does not receive financial support from the state or crown. Its income is derived from exhibitions, trust and endowment funds, receipts from its trading activities and from the subscriptions of its Friends and Corporate Members. Much of the cost of its activities is met by sponsorship from commercial and industrial companies, in which the Academy was one of the pioneers. The Academy thus depends upon a wide range of support from the private sector for the accomplishment of its artistic aims.

One of its principal sources of revenue is hosting a programme of temporary loan exhibitions. These are of the highest quality, comparable to those at the National Gallery, the Tate Gallery and leading art galleries outside the United Kingdom. In 2004 the highlights of the Academy's permanent collection went on display in the newly restored reception rooms of the original section of Burlington House, which are now known as the "John Madejski Fine Rooms".

Under the direction of the former Exhibitions Secretary Norman Rosenthal the Academy has hosted ambitious exhibitions of contemporary art including in 1997 "Sensation" the collection of work by Young British Artists owned by Charles Saatchi. The show created controversy for including a portrait of Myra Hindley by Marcus Harvey that was vandalised while on display.

An early Summer Exhibition at the Academy's original home in Somerset House.

The Academy also hosts an annual Royal Academy summer exhibition of new art, which is a well known event on the London social calendar. It is not as fashionable as was the case in earlier centuries, and has been largely ignored by the trendy Brit Artists and their patrons; however Tracey Emin exhibited in the 2005 show. In March 2007 this relationship developed further when Tracey Emin accepted the Academy's invitation to become a Royal Academician, commenting in her weekly newspaper column that, "It doesn't mean that I have become more conformist; it means that the Royal Academy has become more open, which is healthy and brilliant."^[2]

Anyone who wishes may submit pictures for inclusion in the summer exhibition and those selected are displayed alongside the works of the Academicians. Many of the works are available for purchase.

The Friends of the Royal Academy is a charity founded by Sir Hugh Casson in 1977 to provide financial support for the Royal Academy and allow supporters unlimited access to the exhibition programme. Members of the public can join the Friends of the RA for £70 a year and receive many benefits such as unlimited entry to exhibitions with a family adult guest and up to four family children, use of the exclusive Friends Rooms, and the quarterly RA Magazine. Over the years the Friends scheme has grown in size and importance and in 2007 celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with almost 90,000 Friends.

In 2004, the Academy attracted press and media attention for a series of financial scandals and reports of a feud between Rosenthal and other senior staff that resulted in the cancellation of what would have been profitable exhibitions.^[3] In 2006, it attracted further press by erroneously placing only the support for a sculpture on display in the belief that it was the sculpture, and then justifying it being kept on display.^[4]

In September 2007, Charles Saumarez Smith became secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy, a newly created post.^[5]

The Academy has received many gifts and bequests of objects and money. Many of these gifts were used to establish Trust Funds to support the work of the Royal Academy Schools by providing "Premiums" to students displaying excellence in various artistic genre. The rapid changes that pulsed through 20th century art have left some of the older prize funds looking somewhat anachronistic. But efforts are still made to award each prize to a student producing work that bears a relation to the intentions of the original benefactor.

On Thursday 8 December 2011 Christopher Le Brun was elected President of the Royal Academy upon the retirement of Sir Nicholas Grimshaw.

Royal Academy Schools[link]

The Royal Academy at Burlington House

The Royal Academy Schools form the oldest art school in Britain, and still offer the only 3-year postgraduate art course to students.

The Royal Academy Schools was the first institution to provide professional training for artists in Britain. The Schools' programme of formal training was originally modeled upon that of the French Académie de peinture et de sculpture, founded by Louis XIV in 1648, and shaped by the precepts laid down by Sir Joshua Reynolds. In his fifteen Discourses delivered to pupils in the Schools between 1769 and 1790, Reynolds stressed the importance of copying the Old Masters, and of drawing from casts after the Antique and from the life model. He argued that such a training would form artists capable of creating works of high moral and artistic worth. Professorial chairs were founded in Chemistry, Anatomy, Ancient History and Ancient Literature, the latter two being held initially by Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith.

In 1769, the first year of its existence, 77 students were enrolled into the Schools. By 1830 over 1,500 students had enrolled in the Schools giving an average intake of 25 students each year. They included men such as John Flaxman, J. M. W. Turner, Sir John Soane, Thomas Rowlandson, William Blake, Sir Thomas Lawrence, John Constable, Sir George Hayter, David Wilkie, William Etty and Sir Edwin Landseer. The term of studentship was at first six years. This was increased to seven years in 1792 and to ten in 1800 and it remained at ten till 1853. These figures must be regarded, however, only as years of eligibility. Undoubtedly many of the students did not complete their full term but there are no details of attendances at this early date or any record of the termination of studentships.

Teaching in the Royal Academy Schools was undertaken by a system of lectures delivered by Professors and Royal Academician 'Visitors'. Royal Academicians were elected as Visitors and served in rotation for nine months of the year. Each Visitor attended for a month, setting the models and examining and instructing the performances of the students. This system lasted through into the late 1920s when Visitors were replaced by permanent teachers.

The first woman to enrol as a student of the Schools was Laura Herford in 1860. Three more women enrolled in 1861 with a further three in 1862.

The Royal Academy has always provided free tuition to all its student. Tuition is given by practising artists, many of them Members of the Royal Academy, under the direction of the Keeper.

Today some 60 students study in the Schools on a three-year postgraduate course. The program is focused on studio-based practice across all fine art media. The studios accommodate a wide variety of disciplines, including painting, sculpture, print, installation and time-based and digital media. Selection of candidates is based upon evidence of individual ability and commitment, with an emphasis on potential for further development across the three-year tenure of the course. Students are given the opportunity twice each year to show their work in the Royal Academy.

Library, archive, and collections[link]

The Royal Academy has an important collection of books, archives and works of art accessible for research and display. A large part of these collections have been digitised and can be investigated through the Collection website. See External Links below.

The first president of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, laid the foundation of the Royal Academy collection with the gift of his famous Self-portrait. This was followed by gifts from other artists who founded the Academy, such as Gainsborough and Benjamin West. Subsequently each elected Member was required to donate an artwork (known as a Diploma Work) typical of their artistic output, and this practice continues today. These Diploma Works include sculpture by John Flaxman, Hamo Thornycroft and Phillip King and paintings by J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, Lawrence Alma-Tadema and David Hockney. Additional donations and purchases have resulted in a collection of approximately a thousand paintings and a thousand sculptures showing the linear development of a British School of art.

The Academy's collection of Works on Paper includes significant holdings of drawings and sketchbooks by artists working in Britain from the mid-18th century onwards including George Romney, Lord Leighton and Dame Laura Knight, as well as a large collection of engravings after the Old Masters, reproductive prints after all the leading British artists of the 18th and 19th centuries, and a growing collection of original prints by current Members of the Academy including Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Tom Phillips, Jennifer Dickson and Norman Ackroyd.

The Library of the Royal Academy is the oldest institutional fine art library in Britain. For over 200 years it has served the needs of students and teachers in the Academy Schools and provided an important source for the history of British art and architecture. The Library contains some 65,000 books, including an Historic Book Collection of approximately 12,000 volumes, acquired before 1920, reflecting the early teaching philosophy of the Academy Schools.

The Archive forms one of the world’s most significant resources for the historical study of British art since 1768. It documents the activities of an institution that became a national arbiter of taste throughout the 19th century, acting as the primary venue for the exhibition of contemporary art and continuing to this day to run the oldest school of fine art in the country.

The Photographic Collection consists of 19th- and 20th-century photographs of Academicians, landscapes, architecture and works of art. Holdings include early portraits by William Lake Price dating from the 1850s, portraits by David Wilkie Wynfield and Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion: An Electrophotographic investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movement 1872–1885. In addition, there are over 55,000 photographs relating to the history of the Academy, from views of exhibition installations to images of the Academy's homes and its staff.

Walls and ceilings[link]

Amongst the paintings decorating the walls and ceilings of the building are those of Benjamin West and Angelica Kauffman, in the entrance hall (Hutchison 1968, p. 153), moved from the previous building at Somerset House. In the centre is West's roundel The Graces unveiling Nature c. 1779,^[6] surrounded by panels depicting the elements, Fire, Water, Air and Earth.^[7] At each end are mounted two of Kauffman's circular paintings, Composition and Design at the West end, and Painting or Colour and Genius or Invention at the East end.^[8]

Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo[link]

The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John

The most prized possession of the Academy’s collection is Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo, left to the Academy by Sir George Beaumont. The Tondo is on display in a purpose-built area on the Sackler Wing gallery level. Carved in Florence in 1504–06, it is the only marble by Michelangelo in the United Kingdom and represents the Virgin Mary and Child with the infant St John the Baptist.

Membership[link]

Membership of the Royal Academy is made up of up to 80 practising artists, each elected by ballot of the General Assembly of the Royal Academy, and known individually as Royal Academicians (R.A.). The Royal Academy is governed by these Royal Academicians.

The 1768, the Instrument of Foundation allowed total membership of the Royal Academy to be 40 artists. In 1853 membership was increased to 42 allowing Engravers to become members for the first time. The number of Royal Academicians was increased once again in 1972 to 50 and finally, in 1991, the maximum limit was set at 80 members. All Academicians must be professionally active, either wholly or partly, in the United Kingdom. Of the 80 Academicians, there must always be at least 14 sculptors, 12 architects and 8 printmakers with the balance being drawn from the painters category.

The category of Associate Member of the Royal Academy (A.R.A.) was introduced in 1769 to provide a means of pre-selecting suitable candidates to fill future vacancies among Academicians. Associate membership was abolished in 1991.

In 1918, it was decided that all Academicians and Associates on reaching the age of 75 become members of a Senior Order of Academicians so creating a vacancy in the other categories of membership. A senior member is effectively retired from the day to day government of the Academy but retains all other membership privileges.

All RAs are entitled to exhibit up to six works in the annual Summer Exhibition. They also have the opportunity to exhibit their work in small exhibitions held in the Friends' Room and are occasionally invited to hold major exhibitions in the Sackler Galleries. Many Academicians are involved in teaching in the Schools and giving lectures as part of the Royal Academy Education Programme.

List of RAs[link]

Some notable RAs are listed below. For a complete list go to the Royal Academy Collections Website

Presidents[link]

Keepers[link]

Other posts[link]

See also[link]

• 6 Burlington Gardens
• The Arts Club
• Royal West of England Academy
• Category:Members of the Royal Academy
• Cork Street, behind the Royal Academy, with many art galleries

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Leslie, George Dunlop. The inner life of the Royal Academy, with an account of its schools and exhibitions principally in the reign of Queen Victoria (John Murray, 1914)
• The history of the Royal Academy 1768-1968, Sidney C. Hutchison, Taplinger NY 1968

External links[link]

• Official website of the Royal Academy
• Official website of the Royal Academy Collection

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Academy, Royal". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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Coordinates: 51°30′33″N 0°08′22″W / 51.50917°N 0.13944°W / 51.50917; -0.13944

Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov (Russian: Максим Александрович Венгеров, born August 20, 1974) is a violinist, violist, and conductor who was born in the Soviet Union.

Biography[link]

Youth[link]

Vengerov was born on 20 August 1974 in Novosibirsk, Russia, to a Jewish family with musical tradition. At the age of 5, he began studying the violin with Borbala Hwang, and two years later – with Zakhar Bron. 1984 saw the 10-year-old Maxim go abroad for the first time; in Lublin, Poland, he won the first place at the International Karol Lipiński and Henryk Wieniawski Young Violin Player Competition (years later, he recalled, "I thought Poland was somewhere at the end of the world. One does not forget such trips; no wonder I always remember Poland very fondly…"). When Bron left Russia in 1987 to teach at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, Vengerov and his mother followed him there, and did so again after Bron moved to Lübeck to open a school there.^[1]

1990–1999[link]

In 1990, Vengerov proved his extraordinary talent with victory at the International Carl Flesch Competition in London. At the time, he had already studied with Z. Bron in London and Lübeck. His public appearances – both solo and with orchestras – at major European music venues sparked interest of major record labels (to date, he has recorded close to 100 compositions or cycles) and music magazines. Numerous recording prizes and “Artist of the Year” titles (incl. one from Gramophone) followed, as did the celebrated Grammy Award, Edison Award (for the recording of Shostakovich Second Concerto), and the highly prestigious “Echo Klassik” annual distinction awarded to him by the German Television in 2003 (for recital feat. compositions by J. S. Bach).

In 1997, he became UNICEF’s Envoy for Music and has met and performed for children in such places, as Uganda, Thailand or Kosovo. “Playing by Heart”, a Channel 4 production about the virtuoso’s meetings with young musicians during his master classes, which was shown at the Cannes Festival in 1999, enjoyed tremendous popularity throughout the world. Contacts with Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim or Vag Papian, as well as performances with the world’s most famous orchestras, like the Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic or the Chicago Symphony, exerted profound influence upon Maxim Vengerov’s artistic progress and development of his musical skills. The artist took a two-year course in the Baroque violin and repertoire of the epoch. However, he does not restrict himself to the violin alone; the viola, jazz improvisation, dance, and conducting have caught his attention. Since the earliest stages of his career, he has been playing various Stradivari instruments; at present, it is the 1727 “Ex-Kreutzer”.

2000–[link]

Since 2005, Maxim Vengerov has been Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. During a sabbatical year in 2007, Vengerov was the subject of the film Living the Dream,[1] directed by Ken Howard, for ITV's South Bank Show, in which he revisited his birthplace in Novosibirsk and played viola and danced tango with Christiane Palha for the premiere of Benjamin Yusupov's Concerto for Viola. Living the Dream was also issued as an EMI DVD [2] which won the BBC Music Magazine Award for Best DVD documentary 2008.

From 2008 to 2012, Vengorov performed only infrequently in public on violin, having suffered an exercise injury that affected his playing. During that time, he devoted himself extensively to conducting. In April 2012 he gave a recital at Wigmore Hall in London — a performance which was his first appearance in London in four years. ^[2]

Recently, the artist has also renewed and consolidated his ties with Poland. He has been performing with the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Sinfonietta Cracovia and the Polish Baltic Philharmonic. In October 2006, his concert with the Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by Andrzej Boreyko closed the 13th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań. In October 2011 he was the chairman of the jury at the 14th edition of the competition. In November 2011, he married Olga Gringolts, sister of the violinist Ilya Gringolts.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• CAMI Music LLC
• Maxim Vengerov fan site
• Interview by Bruce Duffie
• C Music TV Interview
• Maxim Vengerov for Jean Paul Gaultier