Grigori Zhislin was born in St. Petersburg, and graduated from Moscow Conservatory under the guidance of the Great Russian teacher Yuri Yankelevitch. At the age of 22 he won the first prize in the Paganini Competition, and the Silver Medal in the Queen Elizabeth Competition.

His international career has since made him one of the most renowned violinists on the concert circuit. His repertoire includes over one hundred concertos for violin and viola, and numerous recital and chamber music programmes ranging from Baroque to contemporary music.

Grigori Zhislin has performed as a soloist with most wellknown leading Russian orchestras such as Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, State Symphony Orchestra, and also orchestras all over the world such as RAI (Milano, Torino), ABC Orchestras (Autralia), Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester, Leipzig, Wiener Sinfoniker, Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Cracow Philharmonic, Stockholm Radio Orchestra, Bergen Harmonien, Lithuanian National Philharmonic, under conductors such as Herbert Blomsted, Aldo Ceccato, Erik Klass, Karl Orterreicher, Kiril Kondraschin, Dimitri Kitaenko, Alexander Lazarew, Arvid Jansons, Yuri Termirkanov, Maris Jansons, Woldemar Nelsson, Saulius Sondeckis, Tadeusz Strugala, Natan Rakhlin, Noeme Jarvi, Vladimir Fedoseyev...

Grigori Zhislin is cooperating closely with such composers as Schnittke, Denisov, Sofia Gubaydullina, and Krystof Penderecki.

He gave the first performance in Russia of Penderecki’s violin concerto, and the two formed a close relationship. Together they have recorded all of Penderecki’s violin and viola works. In 1983, at Penderecki’s request, Zhislin began to play the viola, in order to give the first European performance of Penderecki’s viola concerto, and Penderecki also dedicated his Cadenza per Viola Solo to Zhislin.

Grigori Zhislin is Violin and Viola Professor in United Kingdom at London Royal College and in Germany at Würzburg Hoschule.

He is also visiting professor in Finland, Norway, and Poland, and gives Master Classes in Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece and the USA.

“Grigori Zhislin has my complete admiration, both as a musician and a superb instrumentalist. I have come to know him as an outstanding teacher as weel, but his natural gifts and total dedications have made not just an excellent musician but a great violinist of him.”

Yehudi Menuhin

“ An aristocratic player… a virtuoso with a dazzling command of pyrotechnics.”

The Independent

“Meeting Zhislin for the first time has made a great impression on me… his interpretation coincided fully with my own conception. He perceived deeply the imaginative structure of my music and my musical ideas and found adequate means to realise them.”

Krystof Penderecki