ABOUT | Ilya Gringolts

One can hardly play the violin more expressively, more uncompromisingly than Gringolts. (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Ilya Gringolts wins over audiences with his highly virtuosic playing and sophisticated interpretations and is always seeking out new musical challenges. As a sought-after soloist, Ilya Gringolts devotes himself to the great orchestral repertoire as well as to contemporary and rare works; he is also interested in historical performance practices. His concert programmes include virtuosic early repertoire by Leclair and Locatelli as well as Paganini’s solo and orchestral works. Many composers have written new works for him, most recently Chaya Czernowin, Lotta Wennäkoski, Mirela Ivicevic, Augusta Read Thomas, Beat Furrer and Bernhard Lang.

Following recent collaborations with orchestras such as Oslo Philharmonic, Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra or the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, highlights of the 2024/25 season include appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra under Heinz Holliger, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu and a play-lead programme with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Ilya Gringolts is also featured artist at the 2025 Tongyeong International Music Festival, performing Sibelius’ violin concerto with the KBS Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov, as well as solo and chamber recitals.

Ilya Gringolts has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Recent highlights have been joint projects with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Orquesta de Valencia, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan. From his violin, he regularly leads projects with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Camerata Bern, and Ensemble Resonanz.

For his Diapason d'Or and Gramophone Editor's Choice Award-winning recording of Locatelli's Il labirinto armonico (2021), Ilya Gringolts also led the Finnish Baroque Orchestra from the instrument. This was followed in the same year by the solo CD Ciaccona with works by Bach, Pauset, Gerhard, and Holliger, which also received the Gramophone Editor's Choice Award. His extensive discography of highly acclaimed CD productions for Deutsche Grammophon, BIS, and Hyperion, among others, also includes the critically acclaimed recording of Paganini's 24 Caprices for solo violin and the recording of the complete violin works of Stravinsky (2018), recorded with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia under Dima Slobodeniouk and awarded the Diapason d'Or.

As first violinist of the Gringolts Quartet, he has enjoyed great success at the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Teatro La Fenice in Venice. A highly esteemed chamber musician, Ilya Gringolts regularly collaborates with artists such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Alexander Lonquich, Peter Laul, Aleksandar Madzar, Christian Poltera, Lawrence Power and Jörg Widmann.

After studying violin and composition with Tatiani Liberova and Zhanneta Metallidi in St. Petersburg, he attended the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Itzhak Perlman. He won the International Violin Competition Premio Paganini (1998) and is still the youngest winner in the competition’s history; he was also named a BBC New Generation Artist at the outset of his career. In addition to his professor position at the Zurich University of the Arts, Ilya Gringolts was appointed to the renowned Accademia Chigiana in Siena in 2021. He is also, artistic advisor of the Mizmorim Festival in Switzerland. Ilya Gringolts plays a Stradivari (1718 "ex-Prové") violin.

2024/25 season

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"One can hardly play the violin more expressively and uncompromisingly than Gringolts."

- Süddeutsche Zeitung

“It’s difficult to imagine a more complete violinist than Ilya Gringolts. And even harder to imagine a more perfect performance than the one he gave of Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G major, scaled down to fit the Australian Chamber Orchestra.”

- Limelight Magazine, Steve Moffatt, 08/02/2023

“He launched the 35-minute work in a way that felt like bubbles coming up to a surface and, with an almost constant musical presence, played his complex part with a precision that was breathtaking. [...] Gringolts showed himself a true master of expression and exactitude.”

- Bachtrack.com, Sarah Batschelet, 11/02/2022

“His individuality is reflected right down to the programming, when he mixes classical and contemporary music as a matter of course, understanding the old music as a source of inspiration for the new. [...] To present a work as if you were hearing it for the first time, that is Gringolts' self-imposed goal - more is really not possible.”

- FAZ, Lotte Thaler, 09/01/2022

"This concert was in a class of its own, a positively unforgettable experience, featuring a musician who was committed and inspired down to his bones. Ilya Gringolts' interpretations [are a testament] to his profound engagement with and deep understanding of the works, and to his unflappable, confident mastery of the instrument."

- Pizzicato 2020

"It has been proven countless times that Ilya Gringolts is one of the best violinists of his generation. A Korngold of stunning transparency, Gringolts brings, with almost ridiculous ease, a clarity of execution to even the most difficult passages."

- L´ape musicale 2019

"The Russian violinist draws from his Guarneri del Gesù a sound of such luminosity and rich timbre that it renders the [Violin concerto by Sibelius] an immense aurora borealis, to which his attentive and warm interpretation lent a shimmering quality."

ILYA GRINGOLTS

"One can hardly play the violin more expressively and uncompromisingly than Gringolts."

- Süddeutsche Zeitung

"It has been proven countless times that Ilya Gringolts is one of the best violinists of his generation. A Korngold of stunning transparency, Gringolts brings, with almost ridiculous ease, a clarity of execution to even the most difficult passages."

- L´ape musicale 2019

"The Russian violinist draws from his Guarneri del Gesù a sound of such luminosity and rich timbre that it renders the [Violin concerto by Sibelius] an immense aurora borealis, to which his attentive and warm interpretation lent a shimmering quality."

- El País 2019

"One can hardly play the violin more expressively and uncompromisingly than Gringolts." - Süddeutsche Zeitung

"It has been proven countless times that Ilya Gringolts is one of the best violinists of his generation. A Korngold of stunning transparency, Gringolts brings, with almost ridiculous ease, a clarity of execution to even the most difficult passages."

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- L´ape musicale 2019

"The Russian violinist draws from his Guarneri del Gesù a sound of such luminosity and rich timbre that it renders the [Violin concerto by Sibelius] an immense aurora borealis, to which his attentive and warm interpretation lent a shimmering quality."

​

- El País 2019

"One can hardly play the violin more expressively and uncompromisingly than Gringolts."

- Süddeutsche Zeitung