“...mercifully free of affectation or vanity, yet blessed with as stunning a technique and as intriguing a musical personality as any violinist on the circuit, James Ehnes seems set to become one of classical music's biggest names.” Richard Morrison, The Times
Born in 1976 in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, James Ehnes has rapidly established a pre-eminent reputation among young concert violinists. Ehnes has performed with many of the major orchestras of the world including Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, New York, London Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, DSO Berlin and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with numerous leading conductors including Ashkenazy, Alsop, Sir Andrew Davis, Dutoit, Ivan Fischer, Paavo Järvi, Maazel, Mackerras, Noseda, Robertson, Saraste and Thielemann.
Highlights of the last two seasons include debuts with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Gürzenich Orchester, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and the Gothenburg Symphony and return visits to the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra. In the 09-10 season he tours Japan, returns to Australia and appears with many top international orchestras such as the Philharmonia, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Deutsches Sinfonie Orchester Berlin.
James Ehnes also maintains a busy recital schedule and in summer 2009 he made a sensational debut at the Salzburg Festival performing the Paganini Caprices. He has appeared at Festivals such as City of London, Ravinia, Montreux, Chaise-Dieu and the White Nights in St Petersburg. He gave his debut Wigmore Hall recital in 2007 to great critical acclaim and at the 2007 BBC Proms premiered a new work for violin and piano by Aaron Jay Kernis. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with leading artists such as Andsnes, Lortie, Vogler and Yo-Yo Ma. Ehnes is the Associate Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
Ehnes has an extensive discography and his most recent release is a critically acclaimed recording, Homage, which features twelve of the world’s most famous violins from the collection of David Fulton. This won the 2009 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year. His live recording of the Elgar Concerto with Sir Andrew Davis and the Philharmonia Orchestra won a 2008 Gramophone Award, whilst his recording of the Korngold, Barber and Walton Violin Concertos with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under Bramwell Tovey won a 2008 Grammy Award for best Instrumental Soloist Performance and a 2008 JUNO award for Best Classical Album of the Year. The recording has received outstanding reviews, with Gramophone commenting: “[Ehnes’s] playing has always been impressive on disc, but here he excels himself in expressive range as well as the tonal beauty, with expressive rubato perfectly controlled….an outstanding disc in every way.” Other recent recordings include the complete Mozart Violin Concerti with a hand-picked orchestra directed by Ehnes himself. BBC Music Magazine selected this Mozart disc as the benchmark recording of this repertoire.
Ehnes began violin studies at the age of four, became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin aged nine, made his orchestral debut with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal aged 13, and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1997, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music.
James Ehnes plays the “Ex Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715 and gratefully acknowledges its extended loan from the Fulton Collection.
February 2010 / 559 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material. We update our biographies regularly. Please contact if this biography is out of date.
“One of the most gifted and sincerely expressive artists to have emerged in recent times."
The Daily Telegraph
Paganini Caprices recording (Onyx)
“When we now speak of the world’s finest young fiddlers we must surely add the name of this visionary Canadian.
Throughout Ehnes’s playing glows. You get the feeling every time he puts bow to string that something special will, quite naturally, just happen.”
Editor’s Choice and CD of the month, Gramophone, January 2010
“[Ehnes] confirms the predictions of Erick Friedman, eminent student of Heifetz: 'there is only one like him born every hundred years'."
Awarded the Diapason d’Or, Diapason, January 2010
“James Ehnes has produced a superb version that nudges all others out of the limelight […]
These studies in virtuosity might harbour every technical trick known to man – and maybe some known only to the Devil – but Ehnes has a rare sensibility to make music out of them.
This is a wondrous set that shows Paganini end Ehnes as masters both of technique and expression.”
CD of the week, The Telegraph, October 2009
“Ehnes has returned to these coruscating ‘finger-breakers’ … playing them with the same glowing tonal finesse as before, but with a new lyrical intensity that gives each piece its own special sense of musical identity. […] Beguilingly player and expertly engineered, this deserves a place on anyone’s shortlist of the Caprices.”
BBC Music Magazine, December 2009
“James Ehnes, whose artistry suggests that in Paganini’s age he would have enjoyed similar stature to the great man, succeeds impressively in being more than merely thrilling. He realises that, extravagant though some of the music’s gestures are, this is not simply a high-wire act. […] It’s playing of phenomenal control, allied to musicianship of the highest order.”
The Times, October 2009
“Ehnes gives a performance that balances bel canto refinement with an almost Beethovenian heroism. Technically, this is faultless. The spiccato is crisp, the octaves dazzling. Even more impressive is the melodic sweetness.”
The Independent, October 2009
“All I can say is that this CD contains some of the most jaw-droppingly breath-taking violinistic fireworks you are ever likely to hear. […] one of Ehnes’ greatest triumphs is that he is able to focus on the musical impetus behind the notes because the technical hurdles that face the rest of us barely seem to bother him. In doing so he raises their musical stature greatly. […] for sustained listening and a greater sense of the music as an organic whole I find Ehnes to be without equal.
A marvelous, amazing, stunning, spectacular, fabulous, awe-inspiring, fabulous - only half-way through the Microsoft office thesaurus but I’ll leave out cool and groovy - piece of music-making.”
Recording of the Month, CD Review, November 2009
“James Ehnes shapes three full volumes of Paganini's Caprices into gorgeous musical sculptures that will give you goosebumps. Ehnes jumps the huge technical hurdles as if they were a stroll on the beach. There is power in his bow, but also remarkable shading; this is not just music to knock your socks off – it has a full, multi-coloured range of moods. Wow.”
4 stars (out of 4), Toronto Star, November 2009
Mozarteum, Salzburg Festival / Paganini Caprices
"James Ehnes played 12 of the 24 Caprices, including the popular "La Chasse" and the famous "Themes and Variations" on the final A minor poem, which many composers have taken up and re-worked. ... James Ehnes played with soft-as-butter phrasing, and a rich and subtle tone, bringing to life and elevating the whole compendium of violin techniques from stroking and bowing to plucking and striking the strings. The performance was a masterclass in how to transform virtuosic, circus acrobatics into sensitive 'scenes' for the violin, each one telling its own little story."
Salzburger Nachrichten, August 2009
Wigmore Hall, BBC Lunchtime Recital with Andrew Armstrong
“The Ehnes package, revealed immediately in the melodious opening andante of the Leclair, consists of palpable joy in the instrument, intonation so sweet in its perfection that you feel it physically, a strong, relaxed bow arm which wet-moulds every phrase - and a total lack of distracting ego-projection.
Ehnes and Armstrong smile a lot, though: their encore, Ravel's Berceuse, dedicated to Fauré, was well into overtime - “so we're playing it just for ourselves”, Ehnes joked.
Its gentle lullaby went straight to the heart of their audience, though - just as Ehnes and Armstrong had pinned them to their seats a moment or two earlier in their performance of Ravel's Tzigane. Here, every colour, resonance and grain of the wood of the violin rang out in overtone, undertone and harmonic. And the piano, reincarnated as cimbalom, flexed the muscle of the Hungarian gypsy language into which both musicians dug deep.
The centrepiece was Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No 2. It slinked into being, only to reveal a flinty brilliance in the scherzo and in Ehnes's powerfully structured finale.”
The Times, March 2009
Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
“I have never heard such an accurate reading of the score… But what about the spirit, the passion and the sheer romance of the piece? Quite simply, the performance was saturated with them, but delivered without hyperbole, bombast or flash.”
The Herald, March 2009
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Kiril Karabits / Beethoven Concerto
“As if this were not enough for one evening, the exceptional violinist James Ehnes gave a performance of the Beethoven concerto that was transfixing in its eloquence, in perfect tandem with the qualities of refinement and depth that are components of the Bournemouth orchestra's collective personality. Serenity and sinew, radiance and rhythmic point were searchingly deployed in Ehnes's profoundly expressive interpretation, the tumultuous reception of which was rewarded with an encore of the gigue from Bach's Partita No 2.”
Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph, November 2008
“…all ears were on James Ehnes. Is there a creamier, more ravishing violin timbre in the world today than that from Ehnes's Strad? Add immaculate tuning, serene lyricism and an understated but unfaltering musicality, and its clear why the young Canadian is fast becoming the connoisseur's fiddler-of-choice.”
Richard Morrison, The Times, November 2008
New York Philharmonic Orchestra / Bramwell Tovey / Tchaikovsky Concerto
“James Ehnes demonstrated his mastery over his instrument and the music. Delivering technical perfection and playing with great energy and musicality, he had the audience on its feet cheering after the performance.”
The Strad, June 2008
Philharmonia Orchestra / Sir Andrew Davis / Elgar Violin Concerto recording
“Take almost any passage at random from the Violin Concerto in this recording and it’s hard not to be impressed. James Ehnes has a lovely ripe vibrato and an expressive openness that touches the heart from his first entry. Elgar spoke of having written out his soul in this work, and whether Ehnes knows that remark or not, that’s certainly the effect he conveys.”
BBC Music Magazine, January 2008
“Not only is Ehnes's technical address impeccable and intonation miraculously true, his contribution is remarkable for its intrepid emotional scope, athletic agility and (perhaps above all) jaw-dropping delicacy (nowhere more heart-tuggingly potent than in the finale's accompanied cadenza…”
Gramophone - Editor's Choice, January 2008
“…this performance of the concerto is a landmark recording from a consummate artist whose instincts and sensibility mark him out as one of the finest musicians in today's firmament."
CD of the Week, The Daily Telegraph, January 2008
“Ehnes plays Elgar's Violin Concerto with an alchemic mix of passionate intensity and clear-headed intelligence, lavishing upon this spacious, hyper-romantic work a sound of staggeringly rich, luscious beauty, from first note to last. There's a tremendous impetus to the first movement, while the slow movement has a tenderness and freedom that surely come straight from the heart. Ehnes is both technically and musically in total command."
The Sunday Times, 28 October 2007
“The Canadian violinist James Ehnes plays this concerto with superb technical accomplishment, and he is equally impressive in the more extrovert episodes as in the intimate and amorous musing. With Sir Andrew Davis a sensitive collaborator and the Philharmonia responding wholeheartedly, this is a distinguished contribution to the Elgar discography."
The Sunday Telegraph, 2 December 2007
Philharmonia Orchestra / Andrew Davis / Elgar Concerto
"Ehnes sustained an unflagging intensity into the testing finale, even into its expansive cadenza: a remarkable feat in the concerto that even Kreisler claimed might have been the greatest test of a violinist's endurance. No doubt about it, this was a distinguished, honest, stirring, world-class presentation, and as such a meaningful tribute to Elgar."
The Strad, August 2007
Wigmore Hall Lunchtime Recital
"Mercifully free of affectation or vanity, yet blessed with as stunning a technique and as intriguing a musical personality as any violinist on the circuit, James Ehnes seems set to become one of classical music's biggest names."
The Times, February 2007
Violin concertos by Korngold, Barber and Walton / Onyx Classics
"James Ehnes gives superb performances... His playing has always been impressive on disc, but here he excels himself in expressive range as well as the tonal beauty, with expressive rubato perfectly controlled... An outstanding disc in every way."
Gramophone, February 2007
Cleveland Orchestra / Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
"…let's start with Ehnes, a Canadian violinist whose star is rising quickly. For his debut Saturday with the orchestra, he played that beloved Tchaikovsky warhorse, the Violin Concerto, as if it were the newest piece on the block. He phrased with utmost expressive flexibility, drawing the romance or drama out of phrases, and employed his buttery tone - thanks in part to a 1715 Stradivarius - to rapturous effect.
Ehnes also happens to possess one of the most wizardly bow arms in the business. In passages requiring velocity, especially in the finale, he passed across the strings at a speed that sounded dangerous, but never obscured notes. Ehnes treated Tchaikovsky as a fine balancing act between eloquent poetry and bold athleticism."
Cleveland Times , July 2006
Mozart complete music for violin and orchestra / CBC Records
"You know you're in for a treat with sparkling tempi, buoyant rhythms throughout and a soloist whose unerring expressive and technical ability puts a spring in your step. In addition to the concertos are the Adagio and two Rondos making this release a clear first choice in the field."
Classic FM, May 2006
J.S. Bach Sonatas / Analekta
"The performances abound with beauty, intelligence, and expressivity. ... This cycle, along with the Sonatas and Partitas, ensures James Ehnes' standing as one of the great Bach violinists of our time, or any time for that matter."
Classics Today , April 2006
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop / Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.1
"This was the performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto to take away as the ultimate souvenir of the composer's centenary year. It is rare to find an interpretation in which the music's impact is at once so shattering and so exhilarating, so firmly in control yet so generous in expression, so organic in conception yet so rich in its detailed exploration of the score. Extraordinary forces were at work here, and they were harnessed with potent artistic resolve."
The Telegraph, March 2006
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop / Shostakovich's first violin concerto
"Force and poetry. More than most executants, Ehnes found a way to balance these key ingredients, never sacrificing beauty of tone for the excitement of fist fights between bow and strings, yet still playing with fervour. His dark, soulful colouring cast its magic right from the opening"
The Times, March 2006
"This was the performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto to take away as the ultimate souvenir of the composer's centenary year. It is rare to find an interpretation in which the music's impact is at once so shattering and so exhilarating, so firmly in control yet so generous in expression, so organic in conception yet so rich in its detailed exploration of the score. Extraordinary forces were at work here, and they were harnessed with potent artistic resolve."
The Telegraph, March 2006
"One of the most gifted and sincerely expressive artists to have emerged in recent times."
Daily Telegraph, March 2006
Scottish Chamber Orchestra /Bruch's Violin Concerto
"…the spotlight was on James Ehnes, the red-hot Canadian violinist. His technique is blistering, giving an utter conviction to whatever he plays - including Friday's supersonic Paganini encore."
The Scotsman, November 2005
London Symphony Orchestra / Elgar Violin Concerto
“…the way [Ehnes] touched the very soul of the Elgar concerto made for a performance that surpassed the exceptional and entered the realms of the truly inspirational.”
The Daily Telegraph, May 2005
Philharmonia Orchestra / Mozart Violin Concerto No.5
“Fleet orchestral playing was matched by the solo work of the Canadian violinist James Ehnes, who placed musical truth before virtuosic display…Ehnes was really notable for spinning long, finely phrased lines that caught the essence of the piece.”
The Times, April 2005
Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Barber Violin Concerto
“Ehnes’ performance of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto on Friday was one of the best I’ve ever heard. It fused every aspect of Barber’s warmly energetic writing into a performance bursting with bright-eyed optimism and technical brilliance. Ehnes was never going be let off without an encore...”
The Scotsman, March 2005
New York Philharmonic’s Ives Festival/Lou Harrison Suite for Violin and American Gamelan
“Ehnes’s performance was nothing short of brilliant. His tone at the opening sang with the dark, suggestive voice of a gypsy contralto…In each subsequent movement he conjured up a new cast of characters, leaving me dizzy with delight”
The Strad, August 2004
Seattle Symphony Orchestra / Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
"At 28, Ehnes seems to get better every year: technically brilliant, artistically assured. His tone is glorious — a rounded and burnished sound on the Marsick Stradivarius, a 1715 instrument on extended loan from the collection of David Fulton. … Ehnes' sound is lovely even in the upper reaches of the instrument, where violins don't always sound so rich and full. He knows how to make the violin sing, not simply negotiate the notes (though that can be hard enough in the Mendelssohn Concerto). He's an expressive player; his performance was deeply thoughtful — so clean you're never conscious of the concerto's challenges."
Seattle Times, 6 June 2004
Records Dvorák, Smetana and Janácek on Analekta
"With this latest recording, James Ehnes, proves that he possesses everything to become one of the greatest violinists of the twenty-first century."
Classica, April 2004
"Ehnes is a world class violinist and he proves it once again with intense, characterful and technically flawless renditions of these Czech gems."
Classics Today, April 2004
“…There is colour, rhythmic élan, a feeling of pure joy. Yet the performances also attest to Ehnes’ total finesse, his lyrical warmth and tenderness in the Sonatina’s slow movement and the first of the Smetana pieces, his passion and vigour in the second of them. The interpretation of the Janacek sonata is of remarkable depth and intensity…"
Daily Telegraph, March 2004
Ulster Orchestra & Thierry Fischer / Beethoven Violin Concerto
“…The young Canadian violinist James Ehnes brought a full, golden tone to the concerto. His playing had the traditional warmth of feeling and also the traditional Kreisler cadenzas, the sparkling third movement cadenza in particular standing out…”
The Irish Times, 4 March 2004
Recital for BBC Radio Three with Eduard Laurel / Beethoven Sonatas Nos. 4 & 7
“…James Ehnes was fully on top of the symphonic possibilities here and produced a gritty and integrated performance, his determined approach to tempi maintaining a momentum that powerd the vehicle forward…”
The Belfast Telegraph, 1 March 2004
San Francisco Symphony & David Robertson / Weill Violin Concerto
“…a dynamite debut by soloist James Ehnes … pleasure in spades … His playing boasts a quiet elegance, seemingly without effort or turmoil, that brought out the lyricism underscoring even Weill's most tartly pointed writing. His string tone is warm and full-voiced, his rhythmic control deceptively fluid. His return visit is something to look forward to…”
San Francisco Chronicle, 8 November 2003
Royal Scottish National Orchestra & Stéphane Denève / Prokofiev First Violin Concerto
“…Juilliard graduate James Ehnes, playing a 1715 Stradivarius, produced shifts in tone and colour in the Prokofiev that demonstrated phenomenal technique combined with an intense, controlled sensibility…”
The Scotsman, 1 November 2003
“…sweetly expressive yet powerful in the lyrical outer movements, with impressive, sparkling technical accuracy in the angular central scherzo…”
Glasgow Herald, 3 November 2003
New York Philharmonic & Roberto Minczuk / Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
“Mr. Ehnes, a 27-year-old Canadian, gave an exciting reading of the Tchaikovsky, playing the slower sections with a smooth and warm honeyed tone and the brisker ones with ample quantities of firepower. The first movement in particular was notable for the sense of repose and spacious lyricism that Mr. Ehnes frequently carved out amid the lightning runs. “
New York Times, 9 July 2003
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra & Gianandrea Noseda / Prokofiev 1st Concerto
"The young Canadian violinist James Ehnes brought phenomenal clarity to Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, moving surefootedly even in passages where the starriest virtuosos slip and slide, yet was also sensitive to the fairy tale atmosphere in which the whole unfolds."
The Daily Telegraph, February 2003
"The young Canadian violinist James Ehnes played with spellbinding intensity, shimmering magically to life with his opening solo, then digging into the scherzo's rough middle section with a relish that was both earthy and jaw-droppingly virtuosic. With Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic on peak form, it was a radiant performance..."
The Guardian, 3 February 2003
"What a nonchalant virtuoso he is. Here was no grandstanding: just a beautiful, suitably bittersweet tone, and long-breathed phrases."
The Times, 3 February 2003
"In a beautifully restrained reading of the First Violin Concerto, James Ehnes seemed to touch the very heart of the music. His hypnotic first entry, calculated to spin effortlessly on, set the tone for a performance high on expressive detail and on intimate dialogue between soloist and orchestra."
The Independent, 12 February 2003
Orchestre Symphonique de Montral & Mario Bernardi / Bruch Second Concerto and Scottish Fantasy / CBC 5222
“This beguiling disc features the exceptional young Canadian violinist James Ehnes in an unusual pairing of Bruch's Scottish Fantasy and Second Violin Concerto. ... Ehnes's performance is powerfully persuasive. ... Ehnes here confirms his stature as an artist of refined sensibility, with a musicianship to match his technical control and tonal allure. ... Ehnes, as always, deploys his virtuosity to musical ends that are governed by intelligence and a real feel for the music's style. ... and brings to the Scottish Fantasy a Romantic spirit and freshness of outlook that give his playing such a winning profile.”
The Daily Telegraph, March 2003
"Ehnes est fidèle à sa réputation avec un son irradiant, raffiné, une manière d'enchainer les traits et les phrases sans heurt, exactement comme Giulini interprétant Mozart. Ce chant superbe trouve son plein aboutissemant dans les deux premiers mouvements du 2e Concerto, où Ehnes "explose" toute concurrence (Heifetz, Perlman par deux fois, Accardo, Rosand...)."
Répertoire, January 2003
Bach Sonatas and Partitas / Analekta FL 2 3147-8
"The young Canadian violinist James Ehnes is inspiring in Bach's six solo sonatas and partitas, refined, rhythmically acute and probing right to the music's spiritual core."
Sunday Telegraph; 2002 A Year in Sound, December 2002
Kreisler Recital / Analekta FL 2 3159
"Tout chez James Ehnes respire la force tranquille des violonistes les plus audacieux qui ont su dépasser toute considération technicisante pour se consacrer uniquement à l'expressivité la plus pure. La limpidité du jeu, la souplesse d'un archet qui s'offre généreusement à la corde avec toute l'agilité requise, l'intensité de la note servie avec un amour de son le plus juste possible, suscitent un bonheur rare. Et qui plus est, James Ehnes s'impose comme un immense violoniste qui a su marquer son territoire loin de toute référence ou de toute filiation préétablie. Le génie est à ce prix."
Répertoire, Le Disque du Mois, November 2002
"...the Canadian is top-of-the-range luxury goods: the sound he produces is ravishing, the intonation faultless, the articulation impeccable, all of which are employed with that one essential ingredient for Kreisler: charm. ... For my money, the most satisfying Kreisler programme and modern performance currently available - and that includes those by Bell, Mintz and Kennedy."
BBC Music Magazine, January 2003
BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Richard Hickox at the BBC Proms / Brahms Concerto
"It is the thought that lies behind his interpretations, coupled with a spontaneous freshness, that marks him out as one of the most gifted and sincerely expressive artists to have emerged in recent times. The Brahms exhibited this comprehensively… Altogether remarkable."
The Daily Telegraph , September 2002