DAVID GERINGAS

Conductor and Cellist

David Geringas is one of the most versatile musicians of our time. The cellist and conductor has an unusually broad repertoire from the earliest baroque up to contemporary music. He was the first musician to play in the West works of the Russian and Lithuanian avant garde and many composers dedicated works to him. For his worldwide engagement for Lithuanian music and its composers he was awarded highest distinctions of his country.

Born in Lithuania David Geringas studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1963 until 1973 with Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1970 David Geringas won the First Prize and the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky competition.

In 2000 he took over a professorship for violoncello at the 'Hanns Eisler' Academy of Music in Berlin. Moreover he is honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory. David Geringas also heads various master-classes all over the world for the up-and-coming musicians. His students are winners of prizes and awards of international competitions.

David Geringas performed with renowned orchestras among others the Berlin and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, all German Radio Symphony Orchestras, the top orchestras in Vienna, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Warsaw, St. Petersburg and Moscow, Montreal, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Seoul. He played under conductors as Gerd Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrey Boreyko, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Fedossejew, Kyrill Kondraschin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yurij Temirkanow, Klaus Tennstedt und Michael Tilson Thomas.

For about 50 CDs which David Geringas has up to now recorded he received a large number of distinctions, among them the Grand Prix du Disque for the recording of the 12 cello concerti by Luigi Boccherini.

Especially worth mentioning are world premieres of compositions dedicated to David Geringas as for instance the Concerto in Do of Anatolijus Šenderovas which was awarded the European Composers Prize in Berlin in 2002, the Cello Concerto of Ned Rorem in the USA in 2003, the Cello Concerto of Vytautas Laurušas in 2004 and of Vidmantas Bartulis in 2005, both in Latvia.

David Geringas' concerts with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Berner Symphonie-Orchester belong among others to the highlights of the concert season 2005/2006, and for the first time he will perform with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. On the occasion of D. Shostakovich's 100th Birthday David Geringas is invited by the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf to arrange and head a weekend of several performances dedicated to the composer.

David Geringas is also a welcome guest at international chamber music stages. So Tatjana Geringas and Ian Fountain belong to his closest partners on the piano. In the season 2004/2005 David Geringas gave together with Ian Fountain a concert series entitled "Beethoven plus…" at the Philharmonie Berlin.

He also works closely together with the Artemis Quartett, the Vogler-Quartett and the Bläserquintett of the Staatskapelle Berlin.

To an ever growing extent David Geringas has been engaged as conductor. Among others he conducted the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, the Kammerphilharmonie of the MDR Leipzig, the Jenaer Philharmonie, the chamber orchestra of the Wiener Symphoniker (Concert-Verein), the Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR, the Kremerata Baltica as well as orchestras in Latvia, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico and Costa Rica. In November 2005 he conducted the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Neubrandenburger Philharmonie for the first time. In the season 2006/2007 David Geringas will give his first performance as conductor and soloist with the Orchestra della Toscana.

For his first CD recording as conductor he received the 'Choc de la Musique' of the music review 'Le Monde de la Musique'.

Since 2004 David Geringas has been Permanent Guest Conductor of the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra Vilnius and since 2005 Chief Guest Conductor of the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra.