To mark the 70th birthday of renowned violinist Gidon Kremer and the 20th anniversary of his orchestra’s inception, the Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra, Kremer is celebrating with a world tour. In Egypt, the tour takes him to Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor.
On 1 November, Kremer performs in Luxor Temple; on 4 November at the Golden Hall in Manial Palace, Cairo; and on 6 November at the Great Hall of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Arts Centre in Alexandria.
Kremer is a Latvian classical violinist; more than 30 years ago he was rated as one of the world’s outstanding violinists. Born in 1947 in Riga, he grew up in Latvia before moving to Moscow to study under the violinist David Oistrakh. He was the child of violinists, both of whom had their careers blown to the winds by the Second World War. His Jewish father survived the Holocaust by hiding in a Riga cellar for two years, and the young Kremer was groomed to fulfil his father’s frustrated ambitions.
Kremer flourished musically, winning numerous prizes. The most important was the 1970 Tchaikovsky competition, where conductor Herbert von Karajan was moved to call him “the greatest violinist in the world”.
Watani International
1 November 2016