Frank Peter Zimmermann (born 27 February 1965) is a German

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist.

Childhood

He was born in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, and started playing the violin when he was five years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. Since he finished his studies with Valery Valentinovich Gradow,

Saschko Gawriloff Saschko Gawriloff (born October 20, 1929) is a German violinist and violin teacher of Bulgarian descent. Life Gawriloff was born in Leipzig and received his first violin lessons from his father Yordan Gavriloff, who was a violinist in the Leipz ...

, and

Herman Krebbers Herman Krebbers (18 June 1923 – Tilburg 2 May 2018) was a Dutch violinist. Born in Hengelo, Overijssel, Krebbers studied in Amsterdam with Oskar Back. He gave his first concert at age 10. In 1943, Krebbers debuted with the Concertgebouw ...

in 1983, Frank Peter Zimmermann has been performing with a considerable number of major orchestras and conductors in the world.

Highlights

Highlights include engagements with, among others, the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

and

Paavo Berglund Paavo Allan Engelbert Berglund (14 April 192925 January 2012) was a Finnish conductor and violinist. Career Born in Helsinki, Berglund studied the violin as a child, and played an instrument made by his grandfather. By age 15, he had decided on ...

, the National Symphony Orchestra Washington and

Leonard Slatkin Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer. Early life and education Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His fat ...

, the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure ...

and Manfred Honeck, the

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. History The Berlin Philharmonic was f ...

and

Bernard Haitink Bernard Johan Herman Haitink (; 4 March 1929 – 21 October 2021) was a Dutch conductor and violinist. He was the principal conductor of several international orchestras, beginning with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1961. He moved to Lon ...

, the Philharmonia Orchestra and

Wolfgang Sawallisch Wolfgang Sawallisch (26 August 1923 – 22 February 2013) was a German conductor and pianist. Biography Wolfgang Sawallisch was born in Munich, the son of Maria and Wilhelm Sawallisch. His father was director of the Hamburg-Bremer-Feuerversich ...

and the

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (german: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, BRSO) is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city's four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orchestr ...

and

Mariss Jansons Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 1 December 2019) was a Latvian conductor best known for his interpretations of Mahler, Strauss and Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich. During his lifetime he w ...

. In February 2003, Frank Peter Zimmermann and the

conducted by

Peter Eötvös Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

gave the world premiere of the violin concerto ‘en sourdine' by the German composer

Matthias Pintscher Matthias Pintscher (born 29 January 1971) is a German composer and conductor. As a youth, he studied the violin and conducting. Life and career Pintscher was born in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia. He began his music studies with Giselher Klebe in ...

Recitals

Apart from engagements with orchestra, Frank Peter Zimmermann also gives recitals. Since 1998 his regular partner is Italian pianist

Enrico Pace Enrico Pace (born 1967) is an Italian pianist of international renown. Biography Enrico Pace was born in Rimini, Italy in 1967. He studied piano with Franco Scala, mainly at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro.

. Other regular

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

partners are

Heinrich Schiff Heinrich Schiff (18 November 1951 – 23 December 2016) was an Austrian cellist and conductor. Early life Heinrich Schiff was born on 18 November 1951 in Gmunden, Austria. His parents, Helga (née Riemann) and Helmut Schiff, were composers. H ...

Piotr Anderszewski Piotr Anderszewski () (born 1969) is a Polish pianist and composer. Biographical background Anderszewski was born in Warsaw, Poland. His father's family was part of Poland's aristocracy while his mother came from a Jewish Hungarian family. He s ...

and

Christian Zacharias Christian Zacharias (born 27 April 1950 in Jamshedpur) is a German pianist and conductor. Music career Zacharias studied piano with Irene Slavin and Vlado Perlemuter in Paris. He won second prize at both the Geneva Competition in 1969 and the Va ...

. His recording of the

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

Double Concerto A double concerto (Italian: ''Doppio concerto''; German: ''Doppelkonzert'') is a concerto featuring two performers—as opposed to the usual single performer, in the solo role. The two performers' instruments may be of the same type, as in Bach's ...

with Schiff won the

Deutscher Schallplattenpreis The Deutscher Schallplattenpreis was a prize that the awarded from 1963 through 1992. Its successor is the Echo Music Prize. References German music awards Awards established in 1963 Awards disestablished in 1992 {{award-stub ...

Stradivarius

From 2001 to 2015, Zimmermann played a 1711

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are co ...

violin known as the "Lady Inchiquin", previously played by

Fritz Kreisler Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known ...

. The violin had been loaned to Zimmermann by Düsseldorf-based bank WestLB AG, but was reclaimed in February 2015 at the termination of the loan contract by the bank's legal successor,

Portigon Financial Services WestLB AG (derived from ''Westdeutsche Landesbank'', i.e. "Western German state Bank") was a European commercial bank based in Düsseldorf, Germany which was mainly owned by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Landesbanks are a group of par ...

, owing to the bank's bankruptcy. In January 2016 Zimmermann was loaned the 1727 "Général Dupont" Stradivarius for an initial period of two years. Also known as the "Grumiaux" Stradivarius, it had been owned by the celebrated Belgian virtuoso

Arthur Grumiaux Baron Arthur Grumiaux (; 21 March 1921 – 16 October 1986) was a Belgian violinist, considered by some to have been "one of the few truly great violin virtuosi of the twentieth century". He has been noted for having a "consistently beautiful t ...

. The instrument is owned by entrepreneur, philanthropist and amateur violinist Mr Yu, who purchased it in February 2015 through Rare Violins of New York for an undisclosed sum – making the violin the first Stradivarius to be owned by a private individual on the Chinese mainland. In early 2017, Zimmerman was reunited with his Lady Inchiquin.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmermann, Frank Peter German classical violinists Male classical violinists German male violinists 1965 births Living people EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists Conservatorium van Amsterdam alumni Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 21st-century classical violinists 21st-century male musicians