Baiba Skride

Artist Picture

Baiba Skride

violin

Baiba Skride’s natural approach to her music-making has endeared her to some of today’s most important conductors and orchestras worldwide. She is consistently invited for her refreshing interpretations and her sensitivity and delight in the music. 

The list of prestigious orchestras with whom she has worked include the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouworkest, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and NHK Symphony Orchestra. Notable conductors she collaborates with include Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach, Ed Gardner, Susanna Mälkki, Andris Nelsons, Andres Orozco- Estrada, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Andris Poga, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Tugan Sokhiev, John Storgårds, Juraj Valcuha, and Kazuki Yamada. 

Highlights of Skride’s 2021-2022 season include the season opening of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, with which she performs Sofia Gubaidulina’s Triple Concerto with Harriet Krijgh (cello) and Martynas Levickis (bajan) under the baton of Andris Nelsons. In celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday, she returns to the orchestra once again for a performance of Gubaidulina’s Violin Concerto No. 1 “Offertorium,” which she also plays with the London Symphony Orchestra and Dima Slobodeniouk as well as with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder this season. Additionally, she returns to the hr-Sinfonieorchester with Alain Altinoglu to perform the composer’s Violin Concerto No. 3 “Dialog: Ich und Du.” Furthermore, Skride looks forward to her return to orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. 

Skride is a sought-after chamber musician internationally and commits to the long-established duo with her sister Lauma. She is one of the founding members of the Skride Quartet, with which she has performed at venues such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna, Wigmore Hall London, and Louvre Paris, and has toured in North America and Australia in previous seasons. In 2021/22 Skride also performs in trio with her sister Lauma Skride and Harriet Krijgh as well as in different chamber music projects with Alban Gerhardt and Brett Dean and others. 

Skride is anticipating the release of her latest solo recording in January 2022, which adds to her prolific discography including her recently released Mozart recording with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and her Bartok recording with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, both with Eivind Aadland, as well as her American disc featuring Bernstein, Korngold, and Rózsa with the Gothenburg Symphony and Tampere Philharmonic Orchestras under the baton of Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the debut recording of the Skride Quartet, all under the Orfeo label. 

Skride was born into a musical Latvian family in Riga where she began her studies, transferring in 1995 to the Conservatory of Music and Theatre in Rostock. In 2001 she won the 1st prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Baiba Skride plays the Yfrah Neaman Stradivarius kindly loaned to her by the Neaman family through the Beare’s International Violin Society.