Famed violinist, conductor to become IU School of Music professor

The IU School of Music will announce today Grammy-winning violinist and conductor Jaime Laredo will be joining the faculty of the music school in the fall. He is the second professor added through the University's "Committment to Excellence" program, which seeks to add four eminent master teachers to the faculty. Pianist André Watts was the first to join in 2004.\nBorn in Bolivia, Laredo began studying violin at the age of five. Laredo had his concert debut at the age of 11 with the San Francisco Symphony. At 17, he became the youngest musician to win the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium Competition, launching his career to international fame.\nAs a violinist, Laredo continues to play with the nation's most prominent orchestras, including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia, in addition to European and Asian ensembles. He is currently director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the Brandenburg Ensemble and New York's "Music at the Y" series. Laredo has also made more than 100 recordings, earning seven Grammy nominations and the Deutsche Schallplatten prize.\nLaredo has long-time ties to IU. He studied at the School of Music under the late IU distinguished professor Joseph Gingold and has performed worldwide as a soloist, conductor, recitalist and chamber musician for more than 40 years. Laredo has also reached local prominence, serving since 1994 as jury president for the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. The competition, held every four years, attracts the world's most distinguished violinists and jurors.\nIn a prepared statement, School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards said Laredo and his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson, are "a significant and invaluable force in the international world of music."\n"Given their existing relationship with the Indianapolis Violin Competition, a new relationship with Indiana University is a wonderful fit for the state, for the university and for the students and faculty of the School of Music," Richards said.\nLaredo will perform at the Summer Music Festival June 30. He will direct the Beaux Arts Trio and the Festival Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven's "Triple Concerto, Op. 56"