IRVINE ARDITTI – Guest Violinist

In addition to his phenomenal career as first violinist of the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti continues to excel as an extraordinary soloist. Born in London in 1953, Irvine Arditti began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16. 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.

During the past decade Irvine Arditti has given the world premieres of a plethora of large-scale works especially written for him. These include Xenakis’ Dox Orkh and Hosokawa’s Landscape III, both for violin and orchestra, as well as Ferneyhough’s Terrain, Francesconi’s Riti Neurali and Body Electric, Dillon’s Vernal Showers and Harvey’s Scena, Pauset's Vita Nova, Reynolds's Aspiration, and Sciarrino's Le Stagioni Artificiali, all for violin and ensemble.

He has appeared with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including the Bayerische Rundfunk, BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Paris, Het Residentie den Hague, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Asko Ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps, London Sinfonietta, Nieuw Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, Schoenberg Ensemble. His performances of many concertos have won acclaim by their composers, in particular, Ligeti and Dutilleux.

In January 2012 there was a Nono concert in Madrid containing La Lontananza and Hay que Caminar, where he was joined by Andre Richard for the sound projection and Ashot Sarkissjan for the duo.

On 12th May at Miller Theatre, New York, Irvine gave the premiere of a new work by Hilda Paredes, Senales for violin and ensemble with Signal, the New York-based ensemble and their conductor Brad Lubman.

There are several performances planned this year of Cage's Freeman Etudes, to coincide with the centenary of the composer's birth.

These will take place in Darmstadt (17th July), Washington (6th September), Tokyo (25th September), Venice (10th October) and Huddersfield (20th November).

As well as having recorded over 180 CDs with the Arditti Quartet, Irvine Arditti has built an impressive catalogue of solo recordings. His CD of solo violin works by composers such as Carter, Estrada, Ferneyhough, and Donatoni, as well as his recording of Nono’s La Lontananza, both on the label Montaigne Auvidis, have been awarded numerous prizes. His recording of Cage’s Freeman Etudes for solo violin, as part of his complete Cage violin music series for American label Mode, has made musical history. The series is now complete. The violin concertos by Berio, Xenakis, and Mira, recorded in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, are featured on a disc by the Swedish label Bis.

Irvine Arditti's arrangement for string quartet of Cage's 44 Harmonies from Apartment House 1766 can be found on Mode Records. The complete Mode recordings of Berio's Sequenza's, on which Irvine has recorded the violin sequenza has won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis for 2007, and was awarded best contemporary music release by the Italian music magazine Amadeus in 2008.

Irvine Arditti

Photo image credit: Astrid Karger

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