Dubai, UAE
The 14th edition of the InClassica International Music Festival, organised by SAMIT Event Group, welcomes another legendary figure on Thursday, 10th April 2025, as the celebrated Monegasque violinist Maxim Vengerov takes to the stage of Dubai Opera. Globally recognised as one of the finest musicians of his generation and often lauded as the greatest living string player, Vengerov’s career has spanned decades of triumphs, putting him in high demand as a soloist. Led by French maestro Lionel Bringuier alongside the Franz Schubert Filharmonia, Vengerov opens the concert with Ludwig van Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, Op. 62, a stormy composition perfectly depicting tragedy and personal remorse, followed by Alexey Shor’s Violin Concerto No. 6 “Carpe diem”, a contemporary piece emphasising the violin’s emotional range. To conclude, the orchestra will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 40, also known as the "Great G minor symphony", which beautifully intertwines lyrical magnificence with dramatic intensity.
Lionel Bringuier has already travelled extensively across the globe at the invitation of symphonies, chamber orchestras and opera houses, and in the 2023/24 season he continues the position of Artiste Associé in his hometown with Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. This unique appointment gives him the opportunity to curate a series of special programmes which he will also conduct, and to invite several of his closest musical partners, which in this season include Khatia Buniatishvili, Philippe Bianconi, Daniel Müller-Schott, Renaud Capuçon and Alexandre Tharaud.
Very well-known across Europe and most recently having served as Music Director of Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (2014–18), Bringuier has held previous posts at Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in Valladolid, Orchestre de Bretagne and Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Bringuier’s relationship with Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2007-2013 started with position of a first assistant conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the age of 21, and developed into a role of associate conductor and later resident conductor – as the first person to hold this title in the orchestra's history. The 2023/24 season will feature concerts with Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Dresden Philharmonie, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National de Metz. Other highlights of this season include USA engagements with San Diego Symphony Orchestra and Colburn School Orchestra, as well as BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Paris Conservatoire Orchestra.
Over the past decade, Bringuier’s work across North America has developed a strong relationship with many orchestras, including Houston Symphony and at the Aspen Music Festival in the 2021/22 season. He has also worked extensively in Asia, conducting Tokyo Symphony Orchestra regularly and working with Seoul and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestras. In 2019, he returned to Australia with a programme of Russian music with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and conducted a French programme with West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth.
Bringuier regularly collaborates with Yuja Wang, with whom he has recorded the Ravel Piano Concerto for Deutsche Grammophon as part of a complete cycle of the composer’s works. Other recordings include Chopin with Nelson Freire (DG) and Saint-Saëns with Renaud Capuçon and Gautier Capuçon (Erato) who are also regular partners. He works closely with some of the finest instrumentalists in the world, including Lisa Batiashvili, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Leif Ove Andsnes and Janine Jansen.
Bringuier comes from a family of musicians and studied cello and conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris, winning the prestigious International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors only a year after graduating. He cares passionately about education, outreach, and developing the careers of emerging conductors and soloists. In September 2020 he served on the jury of La Maestra, the first international conducting competition for women, and continues to work with local schools in his hometown of Nice to introduce children to classical music and orchestral experiences.
Universally hailed as one of the world’s finest musicians, and often referred to as the greatest living string player in the world today, Grammy award winner Maxim Vengerov also enjoys international acclaim as a conductor and is one of the most in-demand soloists.
Born in 1974, he began his career as a solo violinist at the age of five, won the Wieniawski and Carl Flesch international competitions at ages 10 and 15 respectively, studied with Galina Tourchaninova and Zakhar Bron, made his first recording at the age of 10, and went on to record extensively for high-profile labels including Melodia, Teldec and EMI, earning among others, Grammy and Gramophone artist of the year awards.
In 2007 he followed in the footsteps of his mentor, the late Mstislav Rostropovich, and turned his attention to conducting and in 2010 was appointed the first chief conductor of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra. June 2014 saw Mr Vengerov graduate with a Diploma of Excellence from the Moscow Institute of Ippolitov-Ivanov with professor Yuri Simonov and he has since finished a further 2-year program of opera conducting.
Highlights of recent seasons saw Mr Vengerov opening the season of the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala with Maestro Chailly, a Residence with Monte Carlo Philharmonic and the Philharmonie in Paris as well as a world wide recital tours. Highlights of the 22/23 season saw him in an extensive US and Canadian recital tour including Berkeley, Kansas City, New York and Toronto, and an 11 concerts tour in the UK. Other orchestral performances as a soloist include Montreal, Vienna, London, Paris and Taiwan and chamber music concerts with Evgeny Kissin and Stephen Isserliss at Carngie Hall, and in Switzerland with Simon Trpcesky and Stephen Isserliss. He also joined Aspen and Bravo Vale Festival in the States this summer in Recital, Masterclasses and Concerto performance with Fabio Luisi and the Dallas SO and celebrated 40 years on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in a big gala concert in April 2023. In 2023/24 he will open the Shanghai International Festival with Christoph Eschenbach, will embarque on another world wine Recital tour including America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia and will perform orchestra concerts in amongst others in Vienna, Paris and Milan.
In 2020 Maxim Vengerov became Classic FM’s first solo Artist in Residence and released a new recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with conductor Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, coupled with works by Saint-Säens and Ravel as well as a live recital from Carnegie Hall.
As one of Mr Vengerov’s greatest passions is the teaching and encouraging of young talent, he has held various teaching positions around the world. He currently holds the Stephan and Viktoria Schmidheiny Stiftungsprofessor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and since September 2016 he is also the Polonsky Visiting Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2018 Maxim Vengerov became the Goodwill Ambassador of the Musica Mundi School - a unique institution, which supports young talents. With the vision of democratising the access of music learning, he launched his own online platform in January 2021:www.maximvengerov.com and created an impact across 170 countries and over 190 million reach. His first year programs include partnerships with musical institutions from around the world, the Lottery Ticket program, guest artist series inaugurated with Brett Yang from TwoSet Violin, as well as his new global community group who’s initiatives include the world leading Mentoring program, rural musical communities initiative and the Musical Pen Pals program for children.
Mr Vengerov has been profiled in a series of documentaries, including Playing by Heart, which was recorded by Channel Four Television and screened at the Cannes Television Festival in 1999, and Living the Dream, which was released worldwide and received the Gramophone Award for Best Documentary in 2008.
Mr Vengerov has received prestigious fellowships and honours from a number of institutions. In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary Visiting Fellowship at Trinity College Oxford and in 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Music London and in 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Music London and the Order of Cultural Merit from the Palace Monte Carlo.
Mr Vengerov has also received numerous awards including Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) (2003), two Gramophone awards (1994, 1995), a Classical Brit Award (2004), five Edison Classical Music Awards (1995, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2004), two ECHO awards (1997, 2003) and a World Economic Forum Crystal award (2007) - honouring artists who have used their art to improve the state of the world.
He plays the ex-Kreutzer Stradivari (1727).
The Franz Schubert Filharmonia has enjoyed a great reception from the audience since its inception, both for its artistic quality and for the relevance of its programmes.
Formed by a new generation of the best musicians in the country who perform under the inspired direction of Tomàs Grau, Music Director and Founder, the orchestra has collaborated with such soloists as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria João Pires, Joshua Bell, Mischa Maisky, Midori, Ivo Pogorelich, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Rudolf Buchbinder, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Stephen Kovacevich, Gautier Capuçon, Sabine Meyer, Steven Isserlis, Paul Lewis, Alexei Volodin, Roberto Alagna, Mark Padmore, Seong-Jin Cho, Alice Sara Ott, Javier Perianes, Ainhoa Arteta, Asier Polo, Leticia Moreno, Pablo Ferrández, Judith Jáuregui and Iván Martín.
The Franz Schubert Filharmonia has also worked with such conductors as Josep Pons, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Antoni Ros Marbà, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Salvador Mas, Pablo González, Edmon Colomer, Paul Agnew, Guillermo García Calvo, Thomas Rösner, Virginia Martínez, Jordi Mora, Josep Caballé Domenech, Marzio Conti and Salvador Brotons, among others.
Read MoreThe orchestra has performed in such venues as the Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Gran Teatre del Liceu, L’Auditori de Barcelona, Auditorio de Zaragoza, Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao and Palau de les Arts in Valencia, and has made concert tours in the United States, Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
The Franz Schubert Filharmonia performs its subscription seasons in Barcelona, Tarragona and Lleida, and since 2009 has had the honour of being the resident orchestra of El Vendrell, the birthplace of the maestro Pablo Casals.
The orchestra has recorded several albums, among which we can highlight Alba Eterna, an opera by the composer Albert Guinovart and produced by the Sony Classical label, and Die Romantische Seele with the pianist Judith Jáuregui, produced by the label ARS Produktion, winner of the International Classical Music Awards, and nominated for the Opus Klassik Awards.
