Michael Jelden

The violinist Michael Jelden was born in 1971 in Stuttgart, Germany. Son of the concert singer Georg Jelden, he studied with Ricardo Odnoposoff and Valerij Klimov. Since his debut in 1985 in Nuremberg he has been performing as soloist with orchestras and in recital in more than 25 countries all over the world.

Jelden has been regularily adding previously unknown music to the violin repertoire: The „Scénes de la Csárda“ by Jenö Hubay, which he recorded for his debut CD in 1996, or an Adagio by Paganini which belonged to his 2nd violin concerto, to mention but a few. He has recorded the latter together with Paganini's 4th concerto. Many of his CDs, covering the violin repertoire from Bach and Brahms to Paganini and Khachaturian, have received critical acclaim. His edition of Paganini's sonata for violin solo is published by the renowned Edition Peters. He plays an instrument by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume from 1827.

The media have covered extensively Michael Jelden's carreer, German TV stations ARD and ZDF, the magazines SPIEGEL, VOGUE, press agency dpa and many others, have featured portraits about him. In 1996 he has fouded Latin America's largest classical music festival, the Festival de Manaus, of which he has also been the director until 1998. Since then it is continued by the Brazilian government.

As an experienced composer and arranger Michael Jelden doesn not only write for his own purpose, but also for different orchestras and as musical director of musical programs of the ZDF TV station.

Michael Jelden has also studied linguistics. He is fluent in 8 languages and is the author of several linguistic books, such as of a Georgian-German bilingual dictionary.

Klassik heute has been writig about the violinist: „"Michael Jelden is up to every trick of virtuoso violin playing. Not a brooding but scintillating. Even in the most complex and difficult passages he never looses control, his intonation remains flawless, his sound slender and expressive, like the sound of the greatest fo all times. No phrasing is accidental, no accent without reason, no ornament mere accessory. He is one of the real great violinists!"

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