Jaime Laredo (born June 7, 1941) is an American

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist and

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

. He was the conductor and music director of the

Vermont Symphony Orchestra The Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is a symphony orchestra based in, and supported in part by, the U.S. state of Vermont. It is a 501(c)(3) corporation. It is one of the few, and the oldest, state-supported symphony orchestras in the United St ...

, and began his musical career when he was five years old. Laredo was born in

Cochabamba Cochabamba (; ) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital (political), capital of the Cochabamba Department and the list of cities in Bolivia, fourth largest city in Bolivia, with ...

, Bolivia. In 1948, he came to North America and took lessons from

Antonio de Grassi Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular m ...

. He also studied with Frank Houser before moving to

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, to study under

Josef Gingold Josef Gingold (; January 11, 1995) was a Russian and American classical violinist and teacher who lived most of his life in the United States. At the time of his death he was considered one of the most influential violin masters in the United St ...

in 1953. He studied with

Ivan Galamian Ivan Alexander Galamian (; April 14, 1981) was an Armenian-American violin teacher of the twentieth century who was the violin teacher of many seminal violin players including Itzhak Perlman and Kyung Wha Chung. Biography Galamian was born in ...

at the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on a full scholarshi ...

until his graduation. From 1960 to 1974, he was married to the late pianist

Ruth Laredo Ruth Laredo (November 20, 1937May 25, 2005) was an American Classical music, classical pianist. She became known in the 1970s in particular for her premiere recordings of the 10 sonatas of Alexander Scriabin, Scriabin and the complete solo pian ...

. In 1976, he was a soloist with the

Naumburg Orchestral Concerts Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. ...

, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series. Jaime Laredo is currently a professor at the renowned

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. The school was founded in 1920 by a group of supporters led by Martha Bell Sanders and Mary Hutchens Smith, with Ernest Bloch serving as its first dire ...

. He served as artistic advisor for the

Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra The Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The orchestra's primary concert venues are the Embassy Theatre and the Auer Performance Hall at Purdue University Fort Wayne. The orchestra's current ...

and guest conducted the orchestra on April 18, 2009, in a program featuring his wife, the cellist Sharon Robinson. He was scheduled to again conduct the orchestra for two programs during the 2009–10 season. Laredo and Robinson were also featured soloists in a special concert conducted by

Andrew Constantine Andrew Constantine (born William Andrew Constantine, 30 December 1961, County Durham, England) is a British conductor. He is currently the Music Director of both the Fort Wayne Philharmonic (appointed 2009) and the Reading Symphony Orchestra (ap ...

, who became the Philharmonic's music director in July 2009. His Carnegie Hall recital in October 1960 was much praised, and helped to launch his career. The next year, he played at Royal Albert Hall in London. Afterwards, he has played with many major European and American orchestras, including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Children's Orchestra Society and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He also plays viola, and has recorded piano quartets with Isaac Stern, Yo-Yo Ma, and Emanuel Ax. In addition, he collaborated with pianist Glenn Gould. He is the violinist of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, along with pianist Joseph Kalichstein and cellist Sharon Robinson. He has been the conductor of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra since 1999. The

announced the appointment of Laredo and wife Sharon Robinson to the string faculty in 2012.

Competitions, prizes, and awards

* Queen Elisabeth Competition, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition (1959) * ''Deutsche Schallplatten'' Prize * Gramophone Award * Several Emmy Award nominations *Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance: *Emanuel Ax, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma & Isaac Stern for ''Brahms: Piano Quartets (Op. 25 and 26)'' (Grammy Awards of 1992, 1992)

Discography

*''Judith Blegen & Frederica von Stade: Songs, Arias & Duets'', with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Columbia, 1975 *Antonio Vivaldi, Vivaldi, ''The Four Seasons (Vivaldi), The Four Seasons'', with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, IMP Classics, 1985 *Antonio Vivaldi, Vivaldi, Great String Concertos, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, IMP Classics, 1985 *Bach, Great String Concertos, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, IMP Classics, 1986 *Mendelssohn-Max Bruch, Bruch, Violin Concertos, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, IMP Classics, 1987 *Beethoven, Violin Concerto and Violin Romances, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, IMP Classics, 1987

Sources

* Bernas, Richard. 2001. "Laredo, Jaime". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. New York: Grove's Dictionaries.

References

1941 births American male classical violinists Bolivian classical violinists American male conductors (music) Curtis Institute of Music alumni Bolivian emigrants to the United States Jacobs School of Music faculty Violin educators Living people Bolivian classical musicians Grammy Award winners Musicians from Indiana People from Cochabamba Prize-winners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition Cleveland Institute of Music faculty Musicians from Shaker Heights, Ohio Classical musicians from Ohio 21st-century American conductors (music) 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American classical violinists {{conductor-stub