Tatiana Grindenko is an exceptional phenomenon of the contemporary Russian violin school.
She began studying music at the age of six in Kharkiv, then in St Petersburg and at the Central Music School in Moscow. At eight she played her first Bach concerto with a symphony orchestra. She graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory.
Tatiana Grindenko achieved outstanding results in international competitions: first prize and gold medal at the World Competition of Young Performers in Sofia (1968), laureate of the Fourth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1970), and first prize at the International Wieniawski Competition in Poland (1972).
From that time Tatiana Grindenko has pursued an active concert career, playing with the leading Soviet and European orchestras. But her musical interests are not confined to academic music.
In 1976 Tatiana Grindenko joined the rock group Boomerang, formed at the Experimental Studio of Electronic Music, and then the rock group Forpost. She took part in various avant-garde actions and festivals. Under the Soviet state this activity was perceived as dissent, and from 1978 to 1988 Tatiana Grindenko's artistic career "sank into silence": she was forbidden to tour, to record for radio or to make records.
Despite this, in 1982 she founded the first ensemble in Russia, the Academy of Early Music, to use an authentic manner of performing early music on original instruments. The ensemble quickly won wide fame and recognition in the Soviet Union.
Since 1989 Tatiana Grindenko and the Academy of Early Music have been regularly invited to, and have played with enormous success at, international early music festivals in Boston, Glasgow, Potsdam, Stockholm, Utrecht, Schleswig-Holstein, Styriarte, Bremen, Neuschwanstein, Lockenhaus, Kortrijk, Rheingau, Vienna and elsewhere.
Of special interest is Tatiana Grindenko's long creative collaboration with Gidon Kremer. Alfred Schnittke's "Concerto Grosso No. 1", Arvo Pärt's "Tabula Rasa" and Luigi Nono's last composition, "Hay que caminar soñando", are dedicated to them. Many well-known composers have dedicated works to Tatiana: V. Artyomov, A. Bakshi, P. Karmanov, V. Martynov, A. Pärt, V. Silvestrov, I. Sokolov and A. Schnittke.
Today Tatiana Grindenko pursues an active concert career as a soloist, working with such symphony orchestras as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus (Leipzig), the Dresden Staatskapelle, the symphony orchestras of Brooklyn, Los Angeles, French Radio, RAI Milan, Turin and Rome, the orchestras of the Moscow and St Petersburg Philharmonias, and others. Her partners on stage have included K. Kondrashin, K. Masur, G. Rozhdestvensky, Y. Temirkanov, V. Fedoseyev, V. Ashkenazy, F. Brüggen, H. Holliger, M. Rostropovich, V. Afanassiev, Y. Bashmet, G. Kremer, A. Lubimov, A. Meneses, B. Pergamenschikow and A. Staier.
In 1997 Tatiana Grindenko and the Academy of Early Music gave the premiere of Vladimir Martynov's opera "Exercises and Dances of Guido" at the Sacro Art festival in Loccum, Germany.
In 1998 she gave the musical premiere of Galuppi's opera "Il Re Pastore" at the opera house of Udine, Italy.
In 1999 she was the musical director of the production "Mozart and Salieri" (music by V. Martynov, directed by A. Vasiliev) at the Moscow theatre School of Dramatic Art.
In 1999 Tatiana Grindenko founded the ensemble Opus Posth specifically for the project "New Sacred Space", based on the concept of the composer Vladimir Martynov. The essence of the concept is the recognition that the collapse of the fundamental principles underlying composed music is irreversible, and the birth of a new space of music-making.
The Opus Posth ensemble is an absolutely unique phenomenon in contemporary Russian culture. Together with leading video artists and poets, the ensemble has realised the multimedia projects "Bach 2000", "A Night in Galicia", "The Seasons", "Russian-German Requiem", "Games of Angels and Human Beings" and "Song of Songs".
The ensemble's repertoire includes works by V. Martynov, A. Pärt, P. Glass, I. Xenakis, A. Knaifel, G. Kancheli, S. Gerber, P. Dresher, J. Adams and others.
In 2000-2001 the Opus Posth ensemble released the CDs "A Night in Galicia" (V. Martynov), "Come In" (V. Martynov) and "The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross" (J. Haydn) on CCn'C Records. Tatiana Grindenko's recordings have appeared on Melodiya, Eurodisc, Ondine, Deutsche Grammophon, Erdenklang Musikverlag and CCn'C Records, RCA, ECM and Wergo.