Максим Венгеров: Жизнь и творчество выдающегося скрипача и дирижера

Israeli violinist, violist, and conductor

Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov (Максим Александрович Венгеров; born 20 August 1974) is a Soviet born Israeli violinist, violist, and conductor. Classic FM has called him "one of the greatest violinists in the world".

Vengerov was born in Novosibirsk, the only child of Aleksandr and Larisa Borisovna, oboist and orphanage children's choir director respectively, and is Jewish. He began studying the violin at age five with Galina Turchaninova. Upon meeting him, she asked: "Do you have strength in these hands?" Turchaninova was very strict. There, he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. He has a home in Migdal, Israel, near Lake Kinneret. He has also played in a number of events commemorating the Holocaust. performing for children in Uganda, Thailand, and Kosovo. Playing by Heart, an American television production on NBC about Vengerov's meetings with young musicians during his master classes, screened at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. He later took a two year course in Baroque violin performance practice and repertoire. In 2005, he injured his right shoulder in a weightlifting accident, and while he recovered, he developed his interest and skill in conducting. He had surgery on the shoulder and a year of rehabilitation. During 2019–20, Vengerov was artist in residence with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. He is Ambassador and Visiting Professor at the Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland (IMMA) and Polonsky Visiting Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music, London. Aside from teaching, Vengerov has also served on numerous competition juries, including the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists, and also as chair of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 2011 and 2016. In 2013, he conducted the finals of the Montreal International Violin Competition.

Vengerov performs on the late period 1727 "ex Kreutzer" Stradivarius violin, made just after the "Golden Period" of Stradivarius violins and previously owned by Rodolphe Kreutzer, to whom Beethoven's 9th Violin Sonata was dedicated. On 1 April 1998, Vengerov purchased the violin from Christie's auction house with aid from patroness Japanese Countess Yoko Nagae Ceschina and violin dealer Haim Lazarov, for £947,500. The family resides in Monaco.