Baiba Skride
violin
“If you wanted to be allowed abroad,” says Latvian violinist Baiba Skride, “you had to win competitions. Only then did you have a chance to get to the other side of the Iron Curtain. The determination to get out was so great that you started working towards it as a child.” Today, the soloist is admired worldwide for her unmistakable tone.
Baiba Skride, who has enjoyed an artistically extremely productive friendship with the Berliner Philharmoniker since her brilliant debut in October 2010, grew up in a family of musicians in Riga, where she attended a special school for talented musicians. At 14, she went to the Rostock University of Music and Drama in the class of Petru Munteanu, and six years later she won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and launched an international solo career. Today, Baiba Skride makes guest appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Orchestre de Paris and the orchestras of Chicago, Boston and New York, among others, and works regularly with conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Tugan Sokhiev and John Storgårds. An avid chamber musician, she has performed with her Skride Quartet, founded in 2016, at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Musikverein Vienna, Wigmore Hall London and the Louvre in Paris. Baiba Skride also performs frequently with her sister, the pianist Lauma Skride. Other chamber music partners include Brett Dean, Stefan Dohr, Alban Gerhardt, Gergana Gergova and Micha Afkham.
