Ilya Kaler

Ilya Kaler (born June 2, 1963) is a Russian violinist. He was born in Moscow.

Kaler is the only violinist to win Gold Medals at these three highly prestigious competitions: the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, 1986); the Sibelius (Helsinki, 1985); and the Paganini (Genoa, 1981).

Education

Born into a family of an orchestral musician, Ilya Kaler showed enormous talent from an early age. At the Central Music School for Especially Gifted Children of the Moscow Conservatory he studied under Zinaida Gilels. He continued his studies with Leonid Kogan and Viktor Tretiakov at the Conservatory, where he earned both master's and doctorate degrees, and graduated with the Gold Medal Award. He also studied privately with Abram Shtern in the Soviet Union and the United States.

Career

He has performed with the Leningrad, Moscow, and Dresden Philharmonic Orchestras, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Danish and Berlin Radio Orchestras, and the Moscow and Zurich Chamber Orchestras, among others. His solo recitals have taken him throughout Europe, Scandinavia, East Asia, and the former Soviet Union.

In recent years, Mr. Kaler has performed with the Detroit, Baltimore, Lansing and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in the United States, and has toured Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, England, Venezuela and Japan. In Japan, he played with the New Japan Philharmonic, the Century Symphony Orchestra and the Hiroshima Symphony. Also an active chamber musician, Mr. Kaler has performed for several summers at the Newport Music Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.

Kaler has been a Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, and is currently a Professor of Violin at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago, Illinois.

Currently, Kaler performs with the Tempest Trio with cellist Amit Peled and pianist Alon Goldstein.

Recordings

Mr. Kaler has made numerous recordings under Naxos Records, Melyodia, Ongaku Records, and MCI records. The recordings released in the last ten years include works by Eugène Ysaÿe, Bach, Brahms, Schumann, Shostakovich, Glazunov, Szymanowski, Dvorak, Paganini, Tchaikovsky and Messiaen.

External links

• Ilya Kaler biography and discography at Naxos.com
• Ilya Kaler biography and discography at ongaku-records.com
• Ilya Kaler's official website