David Geringas

David Geringas has been a pioneer in introducing contemporary Russian music to the West by composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke and Viktor Suslin, many of whom have dedicated works to him. For his special commitment to contemporary music, Mr. Geringas received the Kultur aktuell Prize in 1992 from the Cultural Association of Schleswig-Holstein. In 1994 he premiered the cello concerto by Gubaidulina, championing the new concerto in 12 countries including Japan, Russia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Belgium; his CD of the Gubaidulina Cello Concerto, with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, was issued by the Collegno label. Last May he continued his pioneering efforts with the world premiere of the Cello Concerto by the Estonian composer Lepo Sumera, and this year he will perform a new work by the Russian composer Alexander Raskatov.

Mr. Geringas was born in 1946 in Lithuania, and in 1963 entered the Moscow Conservatory of Music where he studied with Mstislav Rostropovich. He won the Gold Medal in the 1970 International Tchaikovsky Competition, and five years later moved to Germany to begin his international career under the sponsorship of the Herbert von Karajan Foundation. He is currently a professor at the Musikhochschule Lübeck.

He has performed as a soloist with conductors such as Gerd Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Kirill Kondrashin, Ferdinand Leitner, Sir Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Horst Stein, Klaus Tennstedt and Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition to his solo career, Mr. Geringas enjoys a career in chamber music. He has appeared in concerts and festivals at the Berlin and Vienna Festwochen, Lockenhaus, Ludwigsburg, and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. With his wife and duo partner, Tatiana Geringas, he has given highly praised recitals in Rome, Paris, New York, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and at the Vienna Musikverein.

Mr. Geringas has recorded over 30 CDs that demonstrate his unusual versatility, ranging from contemporary works to the early Baroque. The Académie Charles Cros awarded him the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque for his recording of the 12 Boccherini Cello Concerti; his chamber music by Henri Dutilleux received a Diapason d’or; and his recording of Hans Pfitzner’s Cello Concerti was awarded the 1994 Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.