David Geringas |

David Geringas

David Geringas is a world-famous cellist and conductor, a versatile musician with a wide repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary. One of the first in the West, he began to perform the music of Russian and Baltic avant-garde composers – Denisov, Gubaidulina, Schnittke, Senderovas, Suslin, Vasks, Tyur and other authors. For the promotion of Lithuanian music, David Geringas was awarded the highest state awards of his country. And in 2006, the musician received from the hands of the German President Horst Köhler one of the most honorable state awards of the Federal Republic of Germany – the Cross of Merit, I degree, and was also awarded the title of “Representative of German Culture on the World Music Stage”. He is an honorary professor at the Moscow and Beijing Conservatories.

David Geringas was born in 1946 in Vilnius. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory with M.Rostropovich in the class of cello and at the Lithuanian Academy of Music with J.Domarkas in the class of conducting. In 1970 he received the first prize and a gold medal at the International Competition. P.I. Tchaikovsky in Moscow.

The cellist has performed with most of the world’s famous orchestras and conductors. His extensive discography includes over 80 CDs. Many albums were awarded prestigious awards: Grand Prix du Disque for the recording of 12 cello concertos by L. Boccherini, Diapason d’Or for the recording of chamber music by A. Dutilleux. David Geringas was the only cellist to receive the annual German Critics’ Prize in 1994 for his recording of H. Pfitzner’s cello concertos.

The largest composers of our time – S. Gubaidulina, P. Vasks and E.-S. Tyuur – dedicated their works to the musician. In July 2006 in Kronberg (Germany) the premiere of “David’s Song for Cello and String Quartet” by A. Senderovas, created in connection with the 60th anniversary of Geringas, took place.

D.Geringas is an active conductor. From 2005 to 2008 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra (Japan). In 2007, the maestro made his debut with the Tokyo and Chinese Philharmonic Orchestras, and in 2009 he made his first appearance as a conductor with the Moscow Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra.

Source: Moscow Philharmonic website