Final Concert of Prof. David Geringas’ International Cello Master Class

Cellist and conductor David Geringas, born in Vilnius, Lithuania, is among today’s musical elite. An unusually broad repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to contemporary music testifies to the artist’s flexibility and curiosity. His intellectual rigor, stylistic versatility, melodic sensibility, and sensuality of sound have earned him accolades around the world.

#A student of Rostropovich and winner of the First Prize and Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition (1970), he can now look back on a career spanning decades.

David Geringas has performed worldwide with many leading orchestras and the greatest conductors of our time. His discography, comprising nearly 100 CDs, features numerous recordings that have been honored with prestigious awards.

For many decades, he has led a globally celebrated cello class that has produced cello stars such as Gustav Rivinius, Jens Peter Maintz, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Monika Leskovar, Tatjana Vassilieva, Jing Zhao, Johannes Moser, Maximilian Hornung, and Sol Gabetta, among others.

For his global commitment to Lithuanian music and its composers, David Geringas received his country’s highest honors. For his overall achievements as a musician and ambassador for Germany as a cultural nation on the international music scene and throughout the world, he was awarded the Cross of Merit, First Class, of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In October 2011, David Geringas was honored by the “Gunter and Juliane Ribke Foundation Hamburg” for his outstanding achievements in music education. David Geringas is an honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, as well as an honorary doctor of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater.

The Geringas Chamber Orchestra was founded in Berlin in 2016 to mark the 70th birthday of the legendary cellist and conductor David Geringas. The idea was to offer young and talented musicians the opportunity to perform with the orchestra under the baton of David Geringas. The idea was enthusiastically supported by musicians from Berlin orchestras, renowned chamber musicians, and international prize winners.

The orchestra’s founder and director, David Geringas, regularly appears on stages both in Germany and abroad, often in a dual role as cellist and conductor. In addition to the major venues of Western and Eastern European music centers (Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Vienna Musikverein, Tonhalle Zurich, Berlin Philharmonie, among others), invitations have also taken him to Asia and the United States. From 2005 to 2008, he served as “Chief Guest Conductor” of the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra in Japan. In 2007, conductor David Geringas made his debut with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra. In February 2009, he made his debut as a conductor with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow, and in 2015 with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in St. Petersburg.

His opera debut took place in 2010 with Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” in Klaipėda, Lithuania. In 2015, David Geringas made his successful debut in Vilnius as musical director and conductor of the ballet “Egle, the Snake Queen” by Eduardas Balsys.

Since 1997, David Geringas has been a regular guest conductor of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, with which he has successfully toured Italy, France, Spain, Finland, Costa Rica, and China.