Shlomo Mintz Violin
Shlomo Mintz is considered by colleagues, audiences, and critics one of the foremost violinists of our time, esteemed for his impeccable musicianship, stylistic versatility, and commanding technique. He has long been acclaimed as a celebrated guest artist with many of the great orchestras and conductors on the international stage and continues to enchant audiences with his playing.
Awarded with many prestigious international prizes including the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana, the Diapason d'Or, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Gramophone Award, the Edison Award, and the Cremona Music Award, in 2006 he received an Honorary Degree from the Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel.
Born in Moscow in 1959, when he was two, his family immigrated to Israel, where he studied with Ilona Feher, a student of Jeno Hubay. Feher introduced Shlomo Mintz to Isaac Stern, who became his mentor. He was also a student of Dorothy DeLay in New York.
His first performance on stage was at age 6 and at age 11, he played as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Soon afterward, he was called on a week's notice by Zubin Mehta to play Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 6, with the orchestra when Itzhak Perlman fell ill. He made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of sixteen with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (conducted by William Steinberg). Under the auspices of Isaac Stern and the American-Israel Cultural Foundation he started studying at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and at the age of 18, he made an extensive tour through Europe and signed, still in his early twenties, a long-term recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Berlin, Vienna, Concertgebouw, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Philadelphia and New York Philharmonic Orchestras then invited him frequently.
Along with his career, he has collaborated with such a famous artists like Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini, Antal Dorati, Erich Leinsdorf, Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Muti, Yuri Temirkanov, Ida Haendel and Ivry Gitlis, among many others.
At the age of eighteen, Mintz launched a parallel career as a conductor and has since led acclaimed orchestras worldwide including the Royal Philharmonic (United Kingdom), the NHK Symphony (Japan) and the Israel Philharmonic. He was music advisor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra from 1989 to 1993, and in March 1994 was appointed artistic advisor and principal guest conductor of the Maastricht Symphony in the Netherlands, which he led for some weeks during four seasons, sometimes as both conductor and violin soloist. In 2008, he became principal guest conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic. From 2002 to 2012, he was the artistic director of the Sion-Valais International Music Festival. Mintz was also the artistic director of Arena di Verona.
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