Aleksey Mikhailovich Igudesman (russian: Алексей Михайлович Игу́десман, link=no; born 22 February 1973) is a Russian-German violinist, composer, conductor, comedian and actor. He performs in the comedy-musical duo Igudesman & Joo.

Biography

Igudesman was born in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, in what was then the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, to a musical Jewish family.How Alexey and Hyung Created Claughical Music
/ref> At the age of 6 he and his family immigrated to Germany. At the age of 12 he was accepted at the

Yehudi Menuhin School The Yehudi Menuhin School is a specialist music school in Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey, England, founded in 1963 by violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin. The current director of music is the British classical pianist Ashley Wass. The school is one ...

in England. From 1989 to 1998 he studied violin with

Boris Kuschnir Boris Kuschnir (born 1948) is a Ukrainian-born Austrian violinist and academic. Background and early life Born in Kyiv in 1948, he studied violin with at the Moscow Conservatoire and chamber music with Valentin Berlinsky of the Borodin Quartet. ...

at the

Vienna Conservatory Vienna Conservatory may refer to: *University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university ...

. Igudesman has several books published by

Universal Edition Universal Edition (UE) is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, they originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market (which had until then been dominated by Leipzig-ba ...

, including ''Style Workout'', ''The Catscratchbook'' and ''Pigs Can Fly'', as well as violin duet books ''Klezmer & More'', ''Celtic & More'', ''Latin & More'' and ''Asia & More''. In a project named ''Violins of the World'', Igudesman has performed his violin duets with

Gidon Kremer Gidon Kremer ( lv, Gidons Krēmers; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. Life and career Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holo ...

Julian Rachlin Julian Rachlin (born 8 December 1974) is a Lithuanian-born violinist, violist and conductor. Background and early life Born in Vilnius, he emigrated in 1978 with his musician parents to Austria. In 1983, he entered the Konservatorium Wien and s ...

, Janine Jansen,

Vadim Repin Vadim Viktorovich Repin (russian: Вадим Викторович Репин, ; born 31 August 1971) is a Russian and Belgian violinist who lives in Vienna.

, Pavel Vernikov and Alexandra Soumm. Igudesman's poems have been recited by

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1 ...

. With his string trio Triology, he has given concerts all over the world, as well as recording several CDs for

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyou ...

. Igudesman tours with pianist Hyung-ki Joo as the music and comedy duo Igudesman & Joo. Igudesman is also an actor and film director. His directing debut ', a feature-length

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on ...

about classical musicians such as

and

Mischa Maisky Mischa Maisky ( lv, Miša Maiskis, he, מישה מייסקי, russian: Миша Майский; born 10 January 1948) is a Soviet-born Israeli cellist. Biography Mischa Maisky was born in 1948 in Riga and is the younger brother of organist, ha ...

and actors

John Malkovich John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

and

, premiered at the Transylvanian International Film Festival in Romania in June 2012, and won "Most Entertaining Documentary" at DocMiami 2012 and has had a cinematic release in Germany. He is a co-founder of Music Traveler which provides an app to search and book practice rooms. Music Traveler has several notable musicians as ambassadors;

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the " Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since th ...

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living ...

Sean Lennon is an American–British musician, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and half-brother to Julian Lennon. Over the course of his career, he has been a member of the bands Cibo Matto, The ...

Adrien Brody Adrien Nicholas Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring as Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's '' The Pianist'' (2002), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Ac ...

are their chief ambassadors.

Discography

* 1998: Triology – ''Triology Plays Ennio Morricone'' * 1999: Triology – ''Who Killed the Viola Player?'' * 2003: Triology – ''Around The World in 77 Minutes'' * 2015: Aleksey Igudesman – ''Fasten Seat Belts'' * 2016: Igudesman & Joo – ''You Just Have to Laugh''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Igudesman, Aleksey German classical violinists Male classical violinists 1973 births German Jews Living people German composers German male composers People educated at Yehudi Menuhin School Soviet emigrants to Germany 21st-century classical violinists 21st-century German male musicians