Ilya Gringolts

Ilya Gringolts (born 2 July 1982 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg)) is a Russian violinist and composer. Gringolts studied violin in St. Petersburg with Tatiana Liberova and Jeanna Metallidi. He then attended the Juilliard School, and studied violin with Itzhak Perlman for 3 years. From 2001 to 2003, Gringolts was a member of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists programme. Gringolts is currently on the music faculty of the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. In addition to the modern violin, he has a continued commitment to period-instrument performance. He founded the Gringolts Quartet in 2008 and plays first violin in the quartet. Gringolts plays the "ex-Kiesewetter" Stradivarius violin, loaned to him by the Stradivari Society of Chicago. Gringolts has made commercial recordings for such labels as Onyx and Deutsche Grammophon.Gringolts is married to the Armenian violinist Anahit Kurtikyan. The couple have two daughters. His sister Olga is married to violinist Maxim Vengerov.