For over twenty-five years, Nigel Kennedy has been acknowledged as one of the world's leading violin virtuosos and is, without doubt, one of the most important violinists Britain has ever produced. His virtuosic technique, unique talent and mass appeal have brought fresh perspectives to both the classical and contemporary repertoire. He is the best selling classical violinist worldwide.
As a child, he was Yehudi Menuhin’s most famous protégé, studying first at the Menuhin School (where it emerged that the legendary violinist had personally paid the young Kennedy’s fees throughout his education at the school) before moving to the Juilliard School of Music in New York to study under the celebrated teacher, Dorothy DeLay.
During his career Nigel Kennedy has relentlessly circled the globe, undertaking major tours and performing with the world’s major orchestras and conductors, from Europe to the United States to Australia. Major debuts have included his 1977 London Royal Festival Hall performance, the Berlin Philharmonic in 1980, his New York orchestral debut in 1987 and his 2004 French debut.
Nigel Kennedy has attracted an enormous amount of worldwide media attention throughout his extraordinary career. His television appearances have been wide and varied and he has given numerous Royal performances, including for Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and Princess Diana. He has also been presented with many awards including, amongst others, Outstanding Contribution to British Music and Male Artist of the Year at the UK Brit Awards; in France a Gold Award on the major network TV programme Vivement Dimanche and in Switzerland The Gold Rose of Montreux.
An exclusive and major EMI artist since the very start of his career, Nigel Kennedy's multi-award-winning discography is extensive. His first highly-acclaimed recording was Elgar’s Violin Concerto which was voted 1985 Record of the Year by Gramophone magazine and was awarded Best Classical Album of the Year at the BPI Awards, selling in excess of 300,000 copies. His recordings of the Brahms and Beethoven violin concertos have each sold over 100,000 copies and his first landmark recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling classical work of all time. Over 2 million copies have been sold and the album remained top of the UK classical charts for over a year. His second Vivaldi volume with the Berliner Philharmoniker won the prestigious German Echo Award for Best Performance of 18th Century music and the supreme Austrian classical award The Amadeus Prize for Best Instrumental Recording of 2005. He has also recorded concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Berg, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Walton, alongside chamber music and recital discs. His passion for jazz resulted in the album “Blue Note Sessions†made under the eye of Grammy award winning producer Jay Newland featuring a band of jazz giants such as Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette amongst others. Released in 2006 on the fabled Blue Note Label, Kennedy was the first ever EMI Classics violinist to be invited to join the label.
In his brief leisure moments Nigel Kennedy remains passionate about football and has long been a devotee of Aston Villa, attending as many matches as his schedule allows. He is married to his long-time partner; he has one son, and they divide their time between homes in Krakow, London and Malvern.