Background
Ethnicity:
His mother is an American prima ballerina, Dove Garrett, and his father is a German lawyer and jurist, Georg Bongartz.
Garrett was born in Aachen, Germany.
Ethnicity:
His mother is an American prima ballerina, Dove Garrett, and his father is a German lawyer and jurist, Georg Bongartz.
Garrett was born in Aachen, Germany.
After leaving home at 17, he enrolled in the Royal College of Music in London, leaving after the first semester. On being asked in an interview if he was expelled, Garrett responded: "Well expelled wasn't the official term… It was mutually agreed that me and the RCM were going separate ways after the first semester. I did skip some lessons – but I also broke in to do extra practice, so that didn't help!" In 1999 he moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School.
"My parents didn't want me to go to Juilliard," says David, with a laugh, admitting that for most parents it would be a dream come true. "They thought I didn't need it. But I needed to escape their influence. I actually found it musically cleansing. Before Juilliard I'd lived in a shell, spending 24 hours a day with adults. So to meet other musicians my age and to have a break from being treated like this child genius was a relief." It was while studying at Juilliard that David was spotted by a model scout while out partying. Soon he was supplementing his meagre student income with assignments for magazines like Vogue and labels like Armani, appearing not only in glossy magazines but in runway shows.
He started his career at the age of 7 when he already played in public once a week. At the age of 9, he played a Mozart Concert with Orchestra. At the age of 10, as a child prodigy, he made his public début, using the surname of his mother, giving his first Concert “Zigeunerweissen” by Pablo de Sarasate, with the conductor Gerd Albrecht and the Hambourg Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1999 he moved to New York and entered the Juilliard School as one of the first students to study with Itzhak Perlman. At the same time, he will supplement his income by working as a model. In 2004 having graduated from the Juilliard School he returned to Germany.
In recent years, David performed all over the world: Europe (Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, etc.), America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, United States, etc.) and Asia (Korea, Israel, Japan etc.). Recommendations by Sir Neville Marriner prompted invitations leading him to Milan (February 2007, Brahm’s Violin Concert) and to Israel in May 2007, where he played 11 concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (the Mozart Concert in G Major, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and the Paganini Concert No. 2 “La Campanella”). The conductor was George Pehlivanian, who immediately invited him to play with his orchestra in Ljubljana in October 2008. In February 2008, David Garrett toured the US with the Israel Chamber Orchestra. With Sir Neville Marriner, he performed once again the Violin Concert by Elgar in April 2008. In the summer 2008, he took part in the Verbier Festival again. In November 2009 he released his album “Classic Romance”. It had an enormous resonance, winning Garrett the ECHO Classic 2010 in the category “Bestseller of the Year”. In June 2010 all previous musical activities of the star violinist culminated in a further exciting challenge: Rock Symphonies. At the legendary concert at Park Wuhlheide in Berlin, David Garrett delivered an unprecedentedly individual “musical address” to his multi-generational audience. Classics from all epochs – from the Baroque Age to modern times, from Bach to Nirvana – are presented in a newly arranged symphonic idiom. After his successful Rock Symphonies Tour in 2011, David went back to his classical roots. In the autumn, the star-violinist was Honorary Judge in the category violin at the International Music Competition Cologne. He fulfilled his lifetime-dream with the recording of the DECCA album “Legacy”, which was first released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Legacy proved to be an exceptional success. As soon as the album was released, it reached rank 6 on the overall-charts in Germany, the highest-ranking instrumental classical album in German chart history. In January 2012, the album reached gold-status. Legacy was released in the UK on 12th March and in the US on June 05.
He is an Israeli-born violinist, conductor, and instructor of master classes. He is regarded as one of the preeminent violinists of the 20th and early-21st centuries.
