About David Garrett

David Christian Bongartz , known by his stage name David Garrett, is a German classical and crossover violinist and recording artist.

When Garrett was four years old his father purchased a violin for his older brother. The young Garrett took an interest and soon learned to play. A year later, he took part in a competition and won first prize. By the age of seven, he studied violin at the Lübeck Conservatoire. When he was nine years old he gave his debut at the Festival Kissinger Sommer, and by the age of 12, Garrett began working with the distinguished Polish violinist Ida Haendel, often traveling to London and other European cities to meet her. After leaving home at 17, he enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London, leaving after the first semester. On being asked in an interview in 2008 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, in 2003 winning the School's Composition Competition with a fugue composed in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach. While at Juilliard he studied under Itzhak Perlman, one of the first people to do so, and graduated in 2004.

Garrett attended the Keshet Eilon Masterclasses in Israel in the summers of 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2002.

Garrett received his first Stradivarius violin at the age of 11, courtesy of German president Richard von Weizsäcker, after having performed for him. At the age of 13, Garrett recorded two CDs, appeared on German and Dutch television, and gave a concert in the residence of the President of Germany, the Villa Hammerschmidt. At that age, he was offered the use of the famous Stradivarius "San Lorenzo", which is among the best instruments of Antonio Stradivari's "golden period".

He eventually purchased his own, made in 1772 by Giovanni Guadagnini, a student of Stradivari. However, after a 2008 performance, he fell, landing on the violin which was strapped to his back and damaging it severely. Although he was able to get it repaired, he purchased a Stradavari soon afterward.

At the age of 13, as the youngest soloist ever, Garrett signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. In April 1997, aged 16, he played with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Zubin Mehta in Delhi and Mumbai in concerts marking the 50th anniversary of India's Independence.

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