Irvine Arditti

Irvine Arditti

Irvine Arditti, in a concert held at the São Paulo Museum of Art in 2011.
Background information
Born 1953 (age 61–62)
London, England
Genres Classical
Occupation(s) Violinist
Instruments Violin
Years active 1974–present
Associated acts London Symphony Orchestra, Arditti Quartet

Irvine Arditti (born 1953) is a British violinist, as well as the leader[1] and founder of the Arditti Quartet.

Life

Arditti began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16 where he studied with Clarence Myerscough and Manoug Parikian. He joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976 and after two years, at the age of 25, became its Co-Concert Master. He left the orchestra in 1980 in order to devote more time to the Arditti Quartet which he had formed while still a student. In 1988 he was given an honorary F.R.A.M from the Royal Academy for distinguished work. The Arditti Quartet was awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 1999 for 'lifetime achievement' in music.

Arditti has been responsible for having given the world premières of a number of large scale works specially written for him. These include Iannis Xenakis' Dox Orkh and Toshio Hosokawa's Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra, as well as Brian Ferneyhough's Terrain, Luca Francesconi's Riti Neurali and Body Electric, James Dillon's Vernal Showers, Jonathan Harvey's Scena, Brice Pauset's Vita Nova, Roger Reynolds Aspiration and Salvatore Sciarrino's Le Stagioni Artificiali all for violin and ensemble. He has also been responsible for the creation of many solo works including both of Ferneyhough's solo violin works, Intermedio and Unsichtbare Farben. He was also responsible for inspiring John Cage to complete his Freeman Etudes giving the first complete performance of them in 1991.[2][3]

He has appeared as soloist with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles which include the Bayerische Rundfunk, the BBC Symphony, the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Royal Concertgebouw, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Paris, the Residentie Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Asko Ensemble, the Ensemble Contrechamps, the London Sinfonietta, the Nieuw Ensemble, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Oslo Sinfonietta, and the Schoenberg Ensemble. He has performed in most major concert halls and music festival throughout the world. His performances of many concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in particular György Ligeti,[4] Henri Dutilleux,[5] and Xenakis.[6] He has recorded solo works widely, in more 30 albums, as well as having made more than 200 with the Arditti quartet.[7]

His recording of Luciano Berio's violin Sequenza, on Mode Records won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis for 2007 and was awarded best contemporary music release by the Italian music magazine Amadeus in 2008.[8] In 2009 Arditti was appointed foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2014 he received an honour doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in the UK. {{https://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2014/july/celebratedviolinistreceiveshonorarydoctorate.php}}


Arditti is married to the prominent Mexican composer Hilda Paredes.[9] They reside in London. Irvine's son, Jake Arditti, is an upcoming countertenor.

References

  1. ↑ Service, Tom (20 June 2008). "'Nothing is impossible if you rehearse it enough'". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Irvine Arditti Profile". Mode Records. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  3. ↑ "Irvine Arditti Repertoire List". Arditti Quartet. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  4. ↑ "Two views on a showcase of sensitive transcriptions". Gramophone. Haymarket Media Group. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  5. ↑ http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2009/Jul-Dec09/eif22_0109.htm
  6. ↑ "Xenakis at 60", Nouritza Matossian, Tempo, New Series, No. 142 (Sep., 1982), pp. 38-40
  7. ↑ "Arditti String Quartet". DRAM. Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
  8. ↑ http://www.ownvoice.com/ardittiquartet/biogirv.htm
  9. ↑ Remarks of Irvine Arditti on BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now program, January 30, 2010

External links