Nigel Kennedy

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.

Kennedy's grandfather was Lauri Kennedy, principal cellist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and his grandmother was Dorothy Kennedy, a pianist. Lauri and Dorothy Kennedy were Australian, while their son, the cellist John Kennedy, was born in England. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London, at age 22, Nigel's father John joined the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, later becoming the principal cellist of Sir Thomas Beecham's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. While in England, John developed a relationship with an English pianist, Scylla Stoner, with whom he toured in 1952 as part of the Llewellyn-Kennedy Piano Trio, with the violinist Ernest Llewellyn; Stoner was billed as "Scylla Kennedy" after she and John married. After they divorced John returned to Australia.

Nigel Kennedy was born in Brighton. A child prodigy, at age 10 he picked out Fats Waller tunes on the piano after hearing his stepfather's jazz records. At the age of 7, he became a pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music. He later studied at the Juilliard School in New York City with Dorothy DeLay. While there he helped to pay for his studies by busking with fellow student and cellist Thomas Demenga.

At the age of 16, Kennedy was invited by jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli to appear with him at New York's Carnegie Hall. He made his recording debut in 1984 with Elgar's Violin Concerto. His 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. The album remained at the top of the UK classical charts for over a year, with total sales of over three million units.

In 1992, Kennedy announced the end of his career in classical music. Around this time, he recorded the album Music in Colours with Stephen Duffy. He returned to the international concert platform in the mid-1990s. In 1997, he received an award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music at the BRIT Awards, and in 2001 received the 'Male Artist of the Year' award.

In other music genres, in 1993, Kennedy made an appearance on Robert Plant's solo album Fate of Nations on the track "Calling to you". In that same year, Kennedy recorded a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Fire" for the album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. In 1999, Sony Classical released The Kennedy Experience, which featured improvisational recordings based on six songs by Hendrix: "Third Stone from the Sun ", "Little Wing", "1983...A Mermaid I Shoild Turn to Be", "Drifting", "Fire" and "Purple Haze".

Kennedy's first autobiography, Always Playing, was published in 1991. His second, Nigel Kennedy Uncensored!, came out in 2021.

In 2000, Kennedy recorded, with Jaz Coleman, Riders on the Storm: The Doors Concerto, a violin-based orchestral version of songs by The Doors, including "Strange Days", "L.A. Woman", "The End", and "Riders on the Storm".