David Geringas

David Geringas has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the globe, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Czech Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, NHK Symphony and Israel Philharmonic, under conductors including Gerd Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Andrey Boreyko, Myung-whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Lawrence Foster, Valery Gergiev, Paavo Järvi, Kirill Kondrashin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Yuri Temirkanov, Klaus Tennstedt and Michael Tilson Thomas. He is a regular guest at many major chamber music festivals and has a vast repertoire, from baroque to contemporary music, much of which he has recorded, being awarded the Grand Prix du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy in 1989. He is a cello professor in Berlin. Important contemporary composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Pēteris Vasks and Erkki-Sven Tüür have dedicated new compositions to Geringas. In July 2006, Anatolijus Senderovas' composition "David's Song for Cello and String Quartet" was premièred in Kronberg – a dedication to Geringas's 60th birthday. His repertoire ranges from the baroque period 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. In October 2006 the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Horst Köhler awarded the "Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (Federal Cross of Merit) to David Geringas for his overall efforts as musician and German Cultural Ambassador to the world music scene. Born in Vilnius, 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 of cello at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. Moreover, he is honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Geringas conducts masterclasses internationally. Several of his students have been recipients of awards at international competitions. Renowned composers of contemporary music dedicated works to David Geringas, thus the Concerto in Do by Anatolijus Šenderovas, being played by David Geringas for the first time in 2002 and being awarded the European Composers Prize in Berlin, the Cello Concerto by Ned Rorem, world premiere 2003 in the US, the Cello Concertos by Vytautas Laurušas and by Vidmantas Bartulis, world premiere 2004 respective 2005 in Lithuania. A special event was the world premiere of Anatolijus Šenderovas' work "David's Song for Cello and String Quartet" in July 2006 in Kronberg which the composer had written on the occasion of David Geringas' 60th birthday. He has been teaching at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena since 2005. 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, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra as well as his first performance with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at once being reinvited for 2007, were included in his 2005/2006 concert season. During the same period, he performed at festivals in Germany, Great Britain, and France. In the season 2006/2007 David Geringas will give concerts among others with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, the Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim and the Galicia Symphony Orchestra. On the occasion of D. Shostakovich's 100th Birthday David Geringas is invited by the Tonhalle Düsseldorf to arrange and to head a weekend of several performances dedicated to the composer. ==Discography==