Violinist Nigel Kennedy is set to perform in Bucharest this December with a program of Jimi Hendrix classics.

The concert, titled Nigel Kennedy plays Hendrix – a magical Christmas Haze violin Experience, is scheduled for December 23 at Sala Palatului.

Acknowledged as a violin virtuoso, Kennedy studied at the Menuhin School and the Juilliard School of Music in New York with Dorothy DeLay.

His first highly-acclaimed recording was Elgar's Violin Concerto, which was voted 1985 Record of the Year by Gramophone magazine and was awarded Best Classical Album of the Year at the BPI Awards. His first landmark recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling classical work of all time. It sold more than 3 million copies, and the album remained top of the UK classical charts for almost two years. He has also made best-selling concerto recordings of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Walton, alongside chamber music and recital discs.

While he spent his early career performing classical music, he has since expanded into jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.

His album Blue Note Sessions features jazz giants such as Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette, among others. The 2009 release A Very Nice Album was another exploration of the non-classical repertoire. It was recorded with The Nigel Kennedy Quintet, made up of the violinist and four of the most dynamic musicians on the Polish jazz scene. In 2010, the album SHHH! was released, containing mainly original Kennedy compositions.

In September 2002, Kennedy was appointed Artistic Director of the Polish Chamber Orchestra, a role the Menuhin once held. With this orchestra, he rediscovered a forgotten late Romantic Polish concerto, Emil Mlynarski's Violin Concerto No 2. He combined it with Mieczyslaw Karlowicz's Violin Concerto in A major, which was released under the title Polish Spirit in 2007. It has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Echo Klassik Award in Germany (Instrumentalist of the Year) and Poland's Fryderyki Album of the Year Award.

Tickets for the Bucharest concert are available at eventim.ro.

(Photo: Russwitherington |Dreamstime.com)

simona@romania-insider.com