Baiba Skride

Baiba Skride previously played the Stradivarius "Wilhelmj" violin (1725), which was on loan to her from the Nippon Music Foundation, and then the "Ex Baron Feilitzsch" Stradivarius violin (1734), which was loaned to her from Gidon Kremer.

She now plays the Yfrah Neaman Stradivarius loaned to her by the Neaman family through the Beares International Violin Society.

Her sisters are Lauma Skride, a pianist, and Linda Skride who plays viola.

Baiba Skride (born 19 February 1981) is a Latvian classical violinist.

From 1995 she studied at the Conservatory of Music and Theatre in Rostock with Petru Munteanu.

For a long time she commuted between the special school in Riga and the college in Rostock.

She has taken masterclasses with Ruggiero Ricci and Lewis Kaplan.

Skride has performed around the world, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

She was the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Contest in 2001.

Baiba Skride comes from a very musical Latvian family: her love of music comes from her grandmother who taught her and her two sisters to sing.

Her father was a famous choral conductor, and her mother plays the piano.

Her sister Lauma Skride, one year younger, also plays the piano, while her two-year-older sister Linda plays the viola.

In Latvia, as a three-year-old she attended a music school.

At the age of four, she was already playing the violin, and just before the age of five she gave her first concert.

Later, she attended a special school for musical talents in Riga.

Until 2008, Baiba Skride was under an exclusive contract with Sony.

She took the place of Hilary Hahn, who had switched to Deutsche Grammophon.

Since then she has collaborated with the music label Orfeo.

As of 2010, she was living in Hamburg with her husband and 2-year-old son; by 2017, they had 2 children.