Photo: welovethesky / CC BY-SA 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Nigel Kennedy is the rare classical musician I genuinely love for refusing to behave. A Brighton-born virtuoso who turned Vivaldi's Four Seasons into a record-breaking phenomenon, then kept right on absorbing jazz, klezmer and anything else that caught his ear. The spiked hair and the deliberate provocation of the tailcoat establishment could read as a gimmick, but the multiple Echo Klassik wins prove the chops are real. That is what I respect, the technique to play it straight paired with the nerve never to. Plenty of players are flawless and forgettable. Kennedy grabs you by the collar, and decades on he still plays entirely on his own terms.
Overview
Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English musician and composer. He plays the violin, viola and piano. His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and has since expanded into jazz, klezmer, and other genres.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Nigel Kennedy
- Name (Japanese)
- ナイジェル・ケネディ
- Reading
- ないじぇる・けねでぃ
- Born
- December 28, 1956 (age 69)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Monkey
- Origin
- Brighton, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- violinist / jazz musician / violist / composer / conductor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis
- 1991 Bambi Award
- 2008 Echo Klassik – Instrumentalist of the Year
- 2001 Echo Klassik – Instrumentalist of the Year
- 2000 Echo Klassik – Instrumentalist of the Year
- Classic Brit Awards
- Brit Award for Classical Recording
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Violinist — see all → · Jazz musician — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.