Biography
Considered to be Mstislav Rostropovich's favorite pupil, he has performed all over the world as a soloist with numerous major orchestras - London Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, Israel Philharmonic and with the greatest conductors of our time. He is a regular guest at several major chamber music festival 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.
David Geringas is one of the most versatile musicians of our time. The cellist and conductor has an unusually broad repertoire from the earliest baroque up 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. For his worldwide engagement for Lithuanian music and its composers he was awarded highest distinctions of his country. 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 over all 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 Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. Moreover he is honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory. David Geringas also heads various master-classes all over the world for the up-and-coming musicians. His students are winners of prizes and awards of international competitions.
David Geringas performed with renowned orchestras among others the Berlin and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, all German Radio Symphony Orchestras, the top orchestras in Vienna, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Warsaw, St. Petersburg and Moscow, Montreal, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Seoul. He played under conductors as Gerd Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrey Boreyko, Myung-whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Kirill Kondrashin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yuri Temirkanov, Klaus Tennstedt und Michael Tilson Thomas.
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 USA, the Cello Concertos by Vytautas Laurušas and by Vidmantas Bartulis, world premiere 2004 respective 2005 in Latvia. 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.
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, belong among others to the highlights of the concert season 2005/2006. He was also guest at prestigious festivals in Germany, Great Britain and France this summer. 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 in Düsseldorf to arrange and to head a weekend of several performances dedicated to the composer.
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