A musician of “eye-popping virtuosity” (The Times), Latvian violinist Kristīne Balanas is a 3rd prize laureate of the 66th International ARD Music Competition, 2018 Young Artist of the Year in the Grand Music Awards of her home country, and recipient of the Fundacion Excelentia Young Talent Award from Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain.

Soloist with some of the world’s leading orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, countless others), with frequent guest appearances at the Berliner Philharmonie, Southbank Centre, and Carnegie Hall. Her head-turning transformation from a street musician and Rock-n-Roll singer in Latvia to a graduate with honors of the Royal Academy of Music where she studied under György Pauk, and Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, under Kolja Blacher, in demand for her “savage, bold, dramatic” (The Strad) playing, marks her as an entirely idiosyncratic presence on the stage.