Anton Martynov

Conductor Anton Martynov (2017-19) knows the art of bringing his audiences to new musical horizons — be it as conductor, pianist, composer or violinist above all. A virtuoso from the start, born into the Russian school of violin playing, he is one of today’s great soloists, playing a singular repertoire that he enriches with his personal touch in halls and festivals all over the world. His subtle and powerful playing is for him a way of invoking the spirits. A sort of modern-day Vivaldi, Anton Martynov has been described by Ivry Gitlis as “a complete musician: magnificent violinist, excellent pianist, composer and conductor – what more can you ask for – all in one person!”

Born in Moscow into a family of physicists, Anton began playing the violin at the age of five. He studied at the Gnessin School and Academy with Elena Malkina, Irina Svetlova, Vladimir Spivakov and Valentin Berlinski, then with Dora Schwarzberg in Brescia and with Gigino Maestri at the Milan Conservatory. In 1993, he recorded the Brahms’ concerto for the ARTE label. Winner of the Stresa International Competition (1994), he joined the Anton Quartet in Paris and was a soloist with the Milan Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly. He collaborated with Philippe Herreweghe for several years and played regularly as a soloist with Marc Minkowski’s Les Musiciens du Louvre. His repertoire includes the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas and Paganini Caprices for solo violin, as well as his own transcriptions and compositions for violin, orchestra and other ensembles.

His practice on various instruments besides the violin (e.g. viola, piano, harpsichord and organ), along with his interest in composition, led him to conducting, which he studied with Alun Francis and George Victor Dumanescu.

In recent years he has concertized in France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Brazil, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey and Bulgaria, playing with the Orchestre de la Suisse Italienne (Lugano), the Ensemble Apollo (The Hague), the Maggio Musicale and Modo Antiquo (Florence), the Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca (Treviso), the Orchestre de Chambre, and many others. His collaborateurs have included: Martha Argerich, Boris Berezovsky, Andreas Brantelid, Gérard Caussé, Henri Demarquette, Ivry Gitlis, Philippe Graffin, David Guerrier, Xavier Phillips, Vadim Repine, Vassilis Varvaressos and Enrico Fagone. In 2017, he participated in the Bologna Festival. Several of his live recordings from the Lugano Festival are included in the collections of the “Martha Argerich Project” (EMI, Warner Music). Two other CDs are dedicated to today’s composers: Antonio Santana (Erol, 2014) and Alexander Mansourian (Brilliant Classics, 2017). The first two CDs of the “Music for Two” series with Kremena Nikolova (NovAntiqua Records) made headlines in 2016 and was a prize-winner at the International Classical Music Awards in 2017. The recording of Federico Maria Sardelli’s Violin Concerto under the direction of the composer (Brilliant Classics, 2014) received five Diapason stars in 2014. His recording of Vivaldi’s complete “La Stravaganza” with Sardelli and Modo Antiquo will be released by Dynamic.

Artistic director of the “Rive Gauche Musique” seasons from 2009 to 2015, Anton Martynov is the founder and artistic director, with Michaël Guttman, of the Parisian festival Le Printemps du Violon, the third edition of which took place in March 2018. He is also professor of violin at the Conservatoire Royal de Mons (Belgium) and assistant to Philippe Graffin at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. He plays a violin made by the Neapolitan luthier Nicolò Gagliano in 1732.