1. Nigel Kennedy was born on 28 December 1956 and is an English violinist and violist.
25 Facts About Nigel Kennedy
1. 2.
Lauri and Dorothy Nigel Kennedy were Australian, while their son, the cellist John Nigel Kennedy, was born in England.
3.
Nigel Kennedy later studied at the Juilliard School in New York City with Dorothy DeLay.
4.
At the age of 16, Nigel Kennedy was invited by jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli to appear with him at New York's Carnegie Hall.
5.
Nigel Kennedy made his recording debut in 1984 with Elgar's Violin Concerto.
6.
Nigel Kennedy's subsequent recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1989 sold over two million copies and earned a place as one of the best-selling of all classical recordings.
7.
In 1992, Nigel Kennedy announced the end of his career in classical music.
8.
Nigel Kennedy returned to the international concert platform in the mid-1990s.
9.
In other music genres, Nigel Kennedy recorded a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Fire" for the 1993 album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix.
10.
On 27 November 2000, Nigel Kennedy joined rock group The Who at the Royal Albert Hall to play the violin solo in the song "Baba O'Riley", released three years later on the album Live at the Royal Albert Hall.
11.
Nigel Kennedy was featured on two of Sarah Brightman's songs for her 2003 album Harem.
12.
Nigel Kennedy has explored Klezmer music with the Polish jazz band Kroke.
13.
In late 2005, Nigel Kennedy recorded his first album for the Blue Note jazz label, released as Blue Note Sessions, with Ron Carter on double bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums and saxophonist Joe Lovano.
14.
Nigel Kennedy was appointed artistic director of the Polish Chamber Orchestra and in 2010, founded the Orchestra of Life, an ensemble of mainly Polish musicians.
15.
Nigel Kennedy objected to the removal of his remarks from the broadcast.
16.
Nigel Kennedy plays the viola, and has recorded Sir William Walton's Viola Concerto.
17.
Until 2006, Nigel Kennedy expressed his intention of not appearing on the classical London concert scene with a London orchestra, which was seen by some as arrogance, although he rationalised it in terms of frustrated perfectionism:.
18.
Nigel Kennedy expresses a preference for the immediate appeal of live performance, and often records entire works or movements in single takes to preserve this sense in his recordings.
19.
Nigel Kennedy introduces improvised elements to his performances, as in his Jimi Hendrix-inspired cadenza to Beethoven's Violin Concerto and his jazz and fusion recordings.
20.
In September 2021, Nigel Kennedy cancelled a performance at the Royal Albert Hall after the host, Classic FM, prevented him from including a Jimi Hendrix composition at the concert.
21.
Nigel Kennedy had intended to perform a version of "Little Wing" in the manner of Ralph Vaughan Williams.
22.
Nigel Kennedy currently divides his time among residences in Malvern, Worcestershire where his former girlfriend Eve Westmore and son Sark Yves Amadeus was born on in 1997 and reside, London and Krakow, Poland.
23.
Nigel Kennedy has been married twice; his second wife, Agnieszka, is a Polish actress and artistic director, born in April 1977.
24.
Nigel Kennedy supported David Davis's campaign when he quit his Shadow Home Secretary post to force a by-election, in protest over proposals to allow terrorist suspects to be locked up for 42 days without charge.
25.
Nigel Kennedy is a vocal opponent of Israel's policies in the West Bank, and, in the summer of 2007, he told a Haaretz reporter:.