Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is a British violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and has more recently performed jazz, klezmer, and other music genres. Read full biography of Nigel Kennedy →
I hate complacency. I play every gig as if it could be my last, then I enjoy it more than ever.
Why would you want to stand there waving a stick when you could be playing an instrument?
If you're playing within your capability, what's the point? If you're not pushing your own technique to its own limits with the risk that... →
I think Bach is equally a romantic composer because he laid the seeds harmonically for people like Chopin and the great Romantics, Brahms, so... →
Yes, I mean like you know, having studied with Yehudi Menuhin that is like some direct route into Bach, because he was one of the foremost... →
I'm always improving and I want to get better and never hit a plateau. I find it an amazing adventure.
Bach was a top harmonist geezer, which is why the jazz cats love him.
You can't learn pathos or profundity.
I can think and play stuff in classical music that possibly violinists who didn't have access to other types of music could never do. It means... →
The Four Seasons was making me popular in Britain, but EMI America had no interest in making that happen in the States, so I just had a classical... →
Menuhin was playing Bach on a fantastic spiritual level when he was a teenager.
If you're not pushing your own technique to its own limits with the risk that it might just crumble at any moment, then you're not really... →
Even if you're playing Brahms or a Beethoven concerto, you've got to have a different vantage point, slightly, each time.
Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is a British violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and has more recently performed jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.