Nigel Kennedy has long been acknowledged as one of the world’s leading violin virtuosos and he is probably the most important violinist Britain has ever produced.

He is a rare artist, capable of popularizing all types of sophisticated music without ever compromising its quality or artistic integrity. While he approaches music with great seriousness, for Kennedy, serious in music does not have to equal solemn.

Kennedy’s virtuoso technique, unique talent and mass appeal have brought fresh perspectives to both the classical and contemporary repertoire. He was the first artist to break the exclusive walls of the classical “private music club” and succeed in inviting the wider audience to experience classical music.

He has undertaken countless international tours, performing with the world’s major orchestras and conductors throughout Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Japan, China, South East Asia and Australia, in the world’s most prestigious concert halls. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, The Philharmonia, Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra are amongst the orchestras he’s worked with.

Throughout his career, he has made successful collaborations with many exceptional artists including André Previn, Klaus Tennstedt, Lynn Harrel, Leonard Slatkin, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Mazur, Yehudi Menuhin, Ron Carter, Jack de Johnette, Jean Luc Ponty, Stéphane Grappelli, Jon Lord, Kate Bush, Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, Boy George, Donovan, The Who.

He has achieved unrivaled success as a recording artist. During his career, he has recorded albums for EMI, Sony, Universal, Blue Note and others and his multi-award-winning best-selling discography is extensive. His recording of Elgar Violin concerto, with London Philharmonic Orchestra (1984) gained high acclaim and was voted the 1985 Record Of The Year by Gramophone magazine, awarded Best Classical Album Of The Year at the BPI Awards selling in excess of 300,000 copies. His first landmark recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling classical recording of all time. Over 2 million copies were sold and the album remained top of the UK pop and classical charts for more than a year. His second Vivaldi volume, with the Berliner Philharmoniker won the prestigious German Echo Award for best Performance of 18th Century Music and the Austrian classical award, The Amadeus Prize.

From early in his career he’s been recognized as a master performer of the great romantic works and his recordings of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky violin concertos have all achieved sales unmatched by any other soloist’s recordings of the same repertoire.

Throughout his extraordinary career, Nigel Kennedy has attracted an enormous amount of media attention, given wide and varied television appearances and numerous private and public performances for the British royal family. He has been presented with many awards amongst others including:  Outstanding Contribution to British Music and Male Artist of The Year at the Brit Awards, UK; 2 Grammy nominations, Vivement Gold Award, France; Golden Rose of Montreaux, Switzerland; Echo Award, Germany; The Amadeus Prize, Austria, Bambi Award, Germany; Silver Gloria Artis Award for Contribution to Culture, Poland (2014), most recently The Taurus European Cultural Award (2022). He was made an honorary member of the British band the Ian Dury and The Blockheads by Ian Dury himself.

Kennedy’s passion for improvised music has resulted in a number of jazz recordings, most notably the album Blue Note Sessions (2006), made with Grammy award-winning producer, Jay Newland, featuring a band of jazz giants such as Jack de Johnette, Ron Carter, Joe Lovano, Lucky Petersen and Kenny Werner. Subsequently, Kennedy has recorded an album of his own arrangements of music by Gershwin as well as albums of original compositions with his Polish jazz quintet.

In 2002 Kennedy was appointed Artistic Director of The Polish Chamber Orchestra, with whom the late Lord Menuhin also collaborated. During that time, he rediscovered and recorded a stunning forgotten late Romantic Polish concerto, Emil Mlynarski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and combined it with Mieczyslaw Karlowicz’s Violin Concerto, releasing the album under the title Polish Spirit. Highly acclaimed, it won the prestigious Echo Classic Award in Germany for Instrumentalist of The Year and Poland’s Fryderyki Album Of The Year Award. His time as Artistic Director marked a golden period of revival for the Orchestra, as Kennedy secured performances in the most important European venues, a major tour of Japan as well as restoring the orchestra’s position on a major record label.

In 2009 Kennedy founded his own orchestra, The Orchestra Of Life, made up of young vibrant and flexible musicians, chosen and invited to play in the orchestra by Kennedy himself. His orchestra made its debut in April 2010 touring all the major cities of Germany presenting a unique juxtaposition of Bach concertos and his own arrangements of early music by Duke Ellington. The orchestra also performed in the most important venues in France and Britain, including Theatre de Champs-Élysées in Paris and Royal Festival Hall in London.

Renowned for his groundbreaking performances within the realms of classical and modern music, Kennedy has also maintained his identity as a composer. His newest work, Violin Concerto No. 1 ““Für Ludwig Van” is his largest to date. Kennedy’s violin concerto is inspired by Beethoven's harmonic and structural aspects rather than derivative melodic quotes. The concerto comprises 4 long-form movements. The listener will be aware of Kennedy’s memorable melodies as well as pastoral influences punctuated by moments of exuberant rhythmic energy. Kennedy is the first world-renowned classical violinist since Wieniawski to have written his own violin concerto.

Recently Kennedy has released a book of his suite for violin and piano, under the title “Songs My Mother Never Taught Me”. These songs can either be performed separately or as a five-movement work. This suite is also arranged for violin and chamber orchestra.

He is a published author, having released a controversial self-penned book of reminiscences on his life and music, titled “Uncensored!”.