Kristīne Balanas

Kristīne Balanas is a musician with «eye-popping virtuosity» (The Times). The Latvian violinist won third prize in the ARD Music Competition, and in 2018, she was named the Young Talent of the Year at the Grand Music Awards in her home country. She has also received the Fundacion Excelentia Young Talent Award from Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain.

For the Risør Chamber Music Festival, this is a long-awaited reunion. In 2022, she came to the festival’s rescue on extremely short notice after three cancellations due to illness. Her knowledge of the violin repertoire, and her musical skill is quite unique.

Kristīne has been a soloist with some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, and many others. She has also made regular guest appearances at the Berlin Philharmonic, Southbank Centre, and Carnegie Hall. Her remarkable journey from being a street musician and rock singer in Latvia to becoming a trained musician with honors from the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied under György Pauk, and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, under Kolja Blacher, has made her a truly unique presence on the stage.

In 2021, Kristīne, along with her brother Roberts and her sister Margarita, served as the Artist-in-Residence at Concert Hall ‘Cēsis’. They performed their inaugural «3 Balanas» concert with Sinfonietta Riga under the direction of Ben Palmer and appeared in Pēteris Vasks’ 75th-anniversary concert with the Latvian conductor Andris Poga and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.

Kristīne plays a violin from 1787 made by Antonio Gragnani, which is loaned to her by «The Little Butterfly Foundation.»