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CLICK HERE for high resolution image of Igor Gruppman

"Gruppman revived the Miklos Rozsa Violin Concerto, an excruciatingly difficult virtuoso showpiece created in 1953 for Jascha Heifetz, and sounded almost as if he were Heifetz. ...The challenges for the violinist are those stratospheric trills, ferocious cadenza and complicated bowings and double stops tossed off at high speeds in grueling succession. Gruppman not only managed them immaculately, he played with terrific intensity and a dark, rich Heifetz-like tone."
- Miami Herald

IGOR GRUPPMAN

Critically acclaimed for the richness and beauty of tone, elegant phrasing, drive, passion and virtuosity, Igor Gruppman enjoys a career as soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster and conductor. Having been a frequent guest leader of such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic, he has worked with conductors such as Solti, Rostropovich, Colin Davis, Eschenbach, Gatti and Haitink. He has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in most European capitals and in the major cities of North America, Israel and New Zealand. Today he also serves as concertmaster and associate conductor of the Florida Philharmonic under James Judd, and as conductor of the orchestra's chamber orchestra.

Igor Gruppman's recordings have met with enthusiastic reception by the critics. "Sinfonia Concertante" by Miklos Rosza on Koch International Classics; Berlioz' "Reverie and Caprice" on Naxos, and the Rozsa Violin Concerto for Koch, which marks the first release of the concerto since the recording by Heifetz for whom this piece was written. In addition, he led the principal members of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the Fields in the world-premiere recording of the original version of Brahms' Quintet in F Minor.

With his violinist/violist wife, Vesna Stefanovich Gruppman, Mr. Gruppman has been appearing in a duo that has been heralded as "violin archangels" for their recording of Malcolm Arnold's Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra, which won its producer a Grammy in 1994.

Igor Gruppman is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Leonid Kogan and M. Rostropovich, followed by studies with Jasha Heifetz in Los Angeles. He has collaborated with such artists as Sviatoslav Richter, Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Oleg Kagan, Jaime Laredo and Lynn Harrell.

To contact Igor Gruppman e-mail:
igor@miamipianofest.com

Listen to music played by Igor Gruppman

All music selections are partial clips except where noted.

Selected pieces:
Igor Gruppman, violin
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Miklos Rozsa -The Complete Orchestral Music, Vol. IV
1. Allegro non troppo ma passionato

3. Allegro vivace

Igor Gruppman, violin
Florida Philharmonic Orchestra
S. Prokofiev-Violin Concerto No. 1

Mozart
Violin Concerto No. 4

KOCH



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