Baiba Skride

Violinist Baiba Skride parlayed prominent competition wins early in her career into international concert prominence. She is also a noted chamber music player.

Skride was born in the Latvian capital of Riga on February 19, 1981. She grew up in a musical family; she, along with sisters <a href="spotify:artist:2li0Ad2EyB2oyqCMtuBdvz">Lauma</a> (piano) and Linda (viola), took their first music lessons from their grandmother, and they have continued to perform together. Skride's mother was a pianist, and her father was a choral conductor. By age five, Skride was concertizing on the violin. She enrolled in 1995 in a school for musically talented youngsters in Riga and then in the Rostock Conservatory in Germany, commuting for a time between the two cities. In Rostock, her teacher was Petru Munteanu. Skride also took master classes with <a href="spotify:artist:0FL6DriaHf8PyvwEDPV9e0">Ruggiero Ricci</a> and Lewis Kaplan. Her record of competition prizes, which dated back to a youth event in Bulgaria in 1988, culminated in a win at the 2001 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition in Brussels. That led to concerto appearances with top orchestras all over Europe, North America, and Asia, including the <a href="spotify:artist:6uRJnvQ3f8whVnmeoecv5Z">Berlin Philharmonic</a>, the <a href="spotify:artist:6tdexW8bZTG8NgOFUCYQn1">Philadelphia Orchestra</a>, and the <a href="spotify:artist:2nFcdyj05pnaQEwlSndbJ6">Tokyo Philharmonic</a>. As a chamber musician, she has been joined by cellists <a href="spotify:artist:4XvLzjMwnILZ9YnMHOVMIN">Sol Gabetta</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2vKos77CK7cddxsAKLo8uS">Alban Gerhardt</a> and harpist <a href="spotify:artist:65T5r0RCfJBz5z0gdEkgRp">Xavier de Maistre</a>, among many others. For a time, Skride performed on the 1734 "Ex Baron Feilitzsch" Stradivarius, owned by violinist <a href="spotify:artist:24ibCRKLtfIZcfrixiBAsm">Gidon Kremer</a>.

Skride has been a prolific recording artist. In her early twenties, she was signed to the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sony+Classical%22">Sony Classical</a> label, replacing <a href="spotify:artist:5JdT0LYJdlPbTC58p60WTX">Hilary Hahn</a> on its roster when the latter moved to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Deutsche+Grammophon%22">Deutsche Grammophon</a>. Her recording debut was an album of Mozart and Haydn violin concertos with the <a href="spotify:artist:2KRJoMGVDxlkykGLqvZqRy">Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra</a>. Two of her <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sony%22">Sony</a> albums won the prestigious Echo Klassik awards in Germany. After her 2008 album Souvenir Russe, she signed with the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Orfeo%22">Orfeo</a> label, where she has continued to issue new albums almost annually. She has focused mostly on standard repertory but was featured on a recording of composer Heino Eller's violin concerto on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ondine%22">Ondine</a> in 2018; that year, she also issued a recording of violin concertos by Bernstein, Korngold, and Miklos Rósza. In 2020, Skride released a new recording of Mozart's five violin concertos with the <a href="spotify:artist:1mlMBjVFn5oeZLAXHIM5no">Swedish Chamber Orchestra</a> under conductor <a href="spotify:artist:0pg6JsCTbYB7zS4BRF94d9">Eivind Aadland</a>, featuring new cadenzas by Skride herself. Skride returned on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Orfeo%22">Orfeo</a> in 2022 with the album Violin Unlimited, featuring solo violin sonatas, and in 2024, she was heard on a recording of Britten's Violin Concerto with the <a href="spotify:artist:2nJZffRcm3WDa74FSkYYOb">ORF Vienna Radio Symphony</a>, conducted by <a href="spotify:artist:0lluGWFB8hZ6HFktcH6kkr">Marin Alsop</a>. ~ James Manheim, Rovi