"Few current violinists can claim as wide a repertoire and as active a policy of commissioning as Sheppard Skærved, and the present disc offers an excellent overview of his solo repertoire, recorded with due appreciation of Sheppard Skærved's incisive clarity-a trait equally apparent in his informative booklet note. Future players will have reason to acknowledge his contribution towards the violin's technical and expressive scope." International Record Review -April 2000

"The performance is so compelling that interest never wavers."(Rochberg ) Gramophone Magazine February 2004

Violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved has appeared as a concerto and recital soloist at major musical centres throughout the world, including the Far and Middle East, Europe and the United States. In Britain he has performed and broadcast at all the major venues and Festivals.

He is the dedicatee of over 150 new works, ranging from pieces by established British composers such as Nigel Clarke, David Matthews and Michael Finnissy, long creative relationships with international figures such as Hans Werner Henze, George Rochberg, William Bolcom, John McCabe, Paul Moravec and Dmitri Smirnov, to collaborations with the front-line of the European avant-garde.

Peter Sheppard Skærved has been associated with the music of Hans Werner Henze since first collaborating with him in a performance of his Concerto Il Vitalino Raddoppiato as an eighteen-year-old. This first collaboration led to highly regarded CD and television recordings of the opera The English Cat, made in Berlin and Bavaria in 1989 and 1991. Henze composed the Fünf Nachtstücke expressly for the début of Peter Sheppard Skærved and Aaron Shorr as a duo in 1990, when the two gave its world première. Since then, Peter Skærved has given critically acclaimed cyclic performances of all of Henze’s violin music. In 2001 his recording of Henze’s complete unaccompanied violin works was chosen as a BBC Music Magazine Disc of the Month.

In partnership with American pianist Aaron Shorr, he has toured worldwide, playing an eclectic and exploratory repertoire that ranges from the cyclic performance of no fewer than seventy works by Beethoven in one series at St Johns Smith Square, London, to becoming the first foreign musician ever to tour a programme of new Turkish repertoire in Turkey, in autumn 2003.

He has made over thirty critically acclaimed CDs, his recording of solo Rawsthorne and McCabe works was nominated for a Gramophone Award in 2002. He is the leader of the Kreutzer Quartet, with whom he has recorded the quartets of Gloria Coates for Naxos (8.559091 and 8.559152).

Peter Sheppard Skærved is a Research Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, he plays the 1699 ‘Adelina Crespi’ Stradivari.

Upcoming Engagements 2007

2007 / 2008

Grammy nominated violinist, Peter Sheppard Skaerved is in the middle of a very busy Autumn. He has just returned from giving two concerts at the 'Paganiniana' Festival in Genova, Italy. Peter is one of the very few violiniststo have performed on Paganini's del Gesu violin, 'il Cannone' , and in Genova, he became one of the even more select group to have performed on it more than once. Three composers, Judith Bingham, David Matthews, and David Gorton, worked with Peter and the instrument to write new works responding to the qualities of this remarkable instrument and its legendary owner. Alongside these works, Peter played George Rochberg's titanic 'Caprice Variations', the greatest set of variations on Paganini's 24th Caprice. Peter's first recording for Naxos was of Rochberg's epic violin concerto (8.559129). The final work in the Peter's first concert in the Festival was Nigel Clarke's 'Pernambuco' which features, alongside the two concertante works, on a new Naxos release (8.570429). Peter has collaborated with Nigel Clarke since they were both students, the first in a long line of composers who have been inspired to write over 200 works for him.

In the next month, he will premiere new works by Dafina Zaqiri, Paul Barker, Luke Styles, Paul Pellay, Paul Archbold, and Liburn Jupolli. He holds a creative residency with the Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, and is the leader of the Kreutzer Quartet.

In the spring he will premiere new concerti by two American composers, Elliott Schwartz and Michael Alec Rose, before the release of his disc of Solo and Chamber works by the Albanian composer, Thomas Simaku.

Peter's work is not confined to new music. His second concert in Genova typified his approach, consisting of Charles de Beriot's brilliant 'Prelude ou Improvisation', Anton Reicha's 'Duo Concertant', Weber and Lafont's reworking his Grand Duo, and the extraordinary set of variations co-written by Henri Herz and Charles Philippe Lafont on the 'Preghira' from Rossini's 'Mose in Egitto', made famous by Paganini. In the week of his return from Genova, Peter recorded three Bach solo Sonatas 'live' and gave the world premiere of the new version of Gloria Coates' (all of whose quartets he has recorded on Naxos) 3rd Symphony, to which the composer has added a large solo role for him.

Peter is renowned for his collaborations with Galleries and Museums. At present, he has ongoing projects with the National Portrait Gallery and British Museum, London, Tate St Ives,and the Library of Congress, Washington, a collaboration which began with his concert of Schubert and Elliot Schwartz there, on Fritz Kreisler's violin, one year ago. He is also the research fellow of the Royal Academy of Music Museum, where he is curating a large scale exhibition and concerts on the 'Revolutionary Violin'. He has just completed a monograph on the painter/singer. John Orlando Parry, which will be published this winter.