Kremerata Baltica

Along with his career achieving the greatest heights of international acclaim, violinist Gidon Kremer (given birth to in 1947 in Riga, Latvia), was anxious to determine connections using the aspiring younger music artists from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, also to share his wealthy artistic encounter with them. Consistent with this conception, he produced the chamber music collective referred to as the Kremerata Baltica in 1996; it really is an ensemble recognized with Kremer’s eclectic and restless exploration of uncommon repertory, aswell as with new interpretations of regular works. Kremer’s effort has activated the impartial musical life from the Baltic says, loosening the shackles that dire financial straits have positioned on the arts. The common age group of the those chosen to Kremerata Baltica–on the foundation of a strenuous audition process–is twenty-two years, as well as the group initially consisted of just twenty-five string music artists. The ensemble’s debut plan was wanted to the viewers of Kremer’s indigenous Riga in Feb of 1997, in the event of his fiftieth birthday. Furthermore to functions by Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Schubert, the orchestra also performed the music of Baltic composers Erkki-Sven-Tüür (Estonia), Peteris Vasks (Latvia) and Feliksas Bajoras (Lithuania). Also on this program was Sutartines, a function which echoes the tragic occasions of January,1991 in Lithuania, by Kremer’s longtime friend Alfred Schnittke. Teacher Saulius Sondeckis, the well-known conductor and creative director from the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, also requires a convert as conductor from the Kremerata Baltica. In the summertime of 1997, the Kremerata Baltica performed the Kremer-led Gstaad Celebration (Switzerland) and Lockenhaus Celebration(Austria); and in addition performed on the Salzburg Celebration. As the twentieth hundred years neared its end, the Kremerata Baltica experienced significant commercial achievement with recordings of music with the “holy minimalist” Estonian-born composer Arvo Pärt and by the Argentine tango-classical fusionist Astor Piazzolla. The ensemble’s name is certainly a pun merging the violinist’s name using the outdated designation of the chamber ensemble being a “Camerata”; the group occasionally adopts the uncommon capitalization KREMERata BALTICA in published materials.