Biography

Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, Frank Peter Zimmermann started playing the violin when he was 5 years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. After finishing his studies with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers in 1983, Frank Peter Zimmermann has been performing with all major orchestras in the world, collaborating on these occasions with the world's most renowned conductors. His many concert engagements take him to all important concert venues and international music festivals in Europe, the United States, Japan, South America and Australia.
Highlights during the 2011/12 season included residencies with both the New York Philharmonic with conductors Alan Gilbert and Christoph von Dohnanyi (including a tour through Europe), and the Bamberger Symphoniker with conductors Manfred Honeck and Jonathan Nott, as well as engagements with among others the Boston Symphony Orchestra / Juraj Valcuha, the Berliner Philharmoniker / Mariss Jansons, the Orchestre National de France / Daniele Gatti, the Filarmonica della Scala / Daniel Harding and concerts in Australia with the orchestras of Sydney and Melbourne.
He will start his 2012/13 season with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester / Daniele Gatti during their summer festival tour. Further highlights include performances with the New York Philharmonic / Andrey Boreyko, the Vienna Philharmonic / Franz Welser-Möst (including a concert in Carnegie Hall, New York), the Philharmonia Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jakub Hrusa, the Cleveland Orchestra / Franz Welser-Möst, the Berliner Philharmoniker / Paavo Järvi, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris / Paavo Järvi.
Mr. Zimmermann has given world premieres of 3 violin concertos: in 2009 the violin concerto no. 3 “Juggler in Paradise” by Augusta Read Thomas with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Andrey Boreyko; in 2007 the violin concerto “The Lost Art of Letter Writing” by Brett Dean, who received the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for this composition, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by the composer; and in 2003 the violin concerto “en sourdine” by Matthias Pintscher with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Peter Eötvös.
Also an avid chamber musician and recitalist, Mr. Zimmermann gives numerous concerts worldwide. His interpretations of the classical, romantic and 20th Century repertoire are received with great critical acclaim from press and public alike. His regular recital partners are pianists Piotr Anderzewski, Enrico Pace and Emanuel Ax.
Together with viola player Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra he forms the Trio Zimmermann; the string trio performs in a.mong others Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne, London, Lyon, Milan, Munich, Paris and Vienna, as well as during the festivals in Salzburg and Edinburgh. In 2010 and in 2011 BIS Records released two CD recordings with works for string trio by Beethoven (Trio’s, Op. 9), Mozart (Divertimento KV 563) and Schubert (Trio, D 471).
Mr. Zimmermann was awarded the ‘Premio del Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena 1990’. In April 1994 he received the important Rheinischer Kulturpreis 1994 and in October 2002 the Musikpreis of the city of Duisburg. On 21 January 2008 he received the “Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland”.
In recent years Sony Classical released a number of new cd recordings: the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra / Manfred Honeck; the Bruch violin concerto no. 1 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Paavo Berglund; the Busoni violin concerto with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI / John Storgards coupled with the Busoni violin sonata no. 2 with pianist Enrico Pace; the 6 violin sonatas by J.S. Bach, again with Enrico Pace; and – in January 2009 - his recordings of the 2 violin concertos of Szymanowski with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra / Antoni Wit and of the Britten violin concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Manfred Honeck. His second recording of the Sibelius violin concerto, this time with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra / John Storgards, was released by the Ondine label in September 2010. In the past Frank Peter Zimmermann has recorded virtually all major concerto repertoire for EMI Classics, ranging from Bach to Weill, as well as many works from the recital repertoire. On Teldec Classics he can be heard in the violin concerto of Ligeti with the ASKO Ensemble and Reinbert de Leeuw. In 2006 ECM Records released his recording with Heinrich Schiff of duo works for violin and cello by Honegger, Martinu, J.S. Bach, Ravel and Pintscher.
Many of the above recordings have received prestigious awards and prizes worldwide.
Frank Peter Zimmermann plays a Stradivarius from 1711, which once belonged to Fritz Kreisler, and which is kindly sponsored by the Portigon AG.

2012/2013 - (August 2012) Biography of GeneralManagement Nymus Artists. Please do not use any old material.

Violin

Frank Peter Zimmermann