Baiba Skride

Baiba Skride’s natural approach to music-making has endeared her to some of today’s most important orchestras and conductors. Prestigious orchestras with whom she has worked include the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and NHK Symphony. Notable conductors she collaborates with include Olari Elts, Christoph Eschenbach, Edward Gardner, Susanna Mälkki, Andris Nelsons, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Santtu Matias Rouvali, Vasily Petrenko, Andris Poga, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Dima Slobodeniouk, Tugan Sokhiev, John Storgårds and Xian Zhang.

Contemporary music is central to Baiba Skride’s music making. Her admiration for Sofia Gubaidulina’s music led to her giving the world premiere of Gubaidulina’s Triple concerto for violin, cello, and bayan with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in February 2017. She is also a sought after chamber musician. She formed the Skride Quartet with Lauma Skride, Harriet Krijgh and Lise Berthaud and this season they visit the Utrecht Chamber Music Festival, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. She also performs in quintet with Alban Gerhard, Brett Dean, Gergana Gergova, Amihai Grosz including performances at the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie Luxembourg and Tonhalle Zurich.

Skride was born into a musical Latvian family in Riga where she began her studies, transferring in 1995 to the Conservatory of Music and Theatre in Rostock. In 2001 she won the first prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Baiba Skride plays the Yfrah Neaman Stradivarius kindly loaned to her by the Neaman family through the Beares International Violin Society.