IN Symphony

Pulling together all the things he’s good at, David Garrett has released an album he hopes builds a bridge between rock and classical music.

David Garrett has the looks of a model, owns unparalleled skills on the violin and loves rock’n’roll. Hence, it seems perfectly sensible that the 31-year-old classical musician would combine all these things for an album which has sent him hurtling into the mainstream.

Just released is the sizzling Rock Symphonies, which features David on violin, fronting an orchestra and a rock band covering rock classics ranging from Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir to Aerosmith and Run DMC’s Walk This Way and November Rain from Guns N’ Roses. He’s also rocked up classics like Toccata, Peer Gynt, Asturias and The 5th.

“I did my research and listened to a lot of records to learn what songs would work with the right approach,” says David, who was recently in Australia. “I had a lot of fun with this but it was also something I needed to do.

“I didn’t care about the reaction so much as how far I could push myself. The more I pushed myself, the more excited I got about the possibilities. I love music, not just classical music so I thought it was important to keep the classical respect but get people from both rock and classical areas interested in something new.”

Born David Bongartz, the German-American adopted his mother’s maiden name and has been playing violin since he was four. By 14 he was the youngest soloist signed to the prestigious classical music label Deutsche Grammophon. Without telling his parents, he later left Germany for New York, where he was accepted at the world famous Juilliard School, studying under legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman. To pay the bills he worked as a model which landed him in the pages of Vogue and walking the catwalks for Armani.

Since then David has played with symphonies and with his band all over the world, usually accompanied by his faithful Stradivarius. Rock Symphonies is David’s eighth album and a DVD concert featuring his cross-over tracks has also been released. He has partnerships with Audi cars, MontBlanc, Cadbury and wears German jewellery and accessories by designer Thomas Sabo. His arrangement of Beethoven’s The 5th has been used in a series of chocolate commercials but he’s also broken the world speed record for performing the speedy Flight of the Bumblebee.