TATIANA GRIDENKO

Tatiana Grindenko is an exceptional phenomenon in the modern Russian violin school. She began studying music at age of six in Kharkov, then in St. Petersburg and Moscow. She played her first concert when she was eight. She graduated from Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory.

She began her concert activity in 1972 after receiving first prize at the International Competition in Poland, after which she began playing with leading Soviet and European orchestras. The boundaries of her musical interests are not confined to academic music, however.

Despite her reputation as a bright romantic violinist in the mid 1970's, Tatiana Grindenko joined the rock band “Boomerang” with its base in an experimental electronic music studio. Grindenko has been involved in various avant-garde events and festivals. Such activities were perceived as acts of dissent in the Soviet Union, and until the end of the 1980's Grindenko’s creative activity was suppressed: she was banned from touring and recording on radio and TV. Despite her official reputation, Tatiana Grindenko went on to create Russia's first Academy of Ancient Music ensemble which in only a short time received wide acclaim and recognition in the Soviet Union.

Since the late 1980's Tatiana Grindenko and the Academy of Ancient Music has become a permanent fixture at international music festivals in Boston, Glasgow, Potsdam, Stockholm, Bremen, Vienna and other European cities. Of special interest to the global music community has been her long-term collaboration with renowned violinist Gidon Kremer.

Today, Tatiana Grindenko maintains an active concert schedule as a soloist and works with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic orchestras, at concert halls in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and on projects with French radio, among others.

She holds the title of People's Artist of Russia (2002). For outstanding achievement in music, she was awarded the State Prize of the Russia Federation (2003).