Jaime Laredo

Violinist Jaime Laredo earned recognition as a leading figure among late-twentieth-century string players, particularly through his longstanding role in the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, while also maintaining parallel careers as a conductor and teacher.

Born Jaime Eduardo Laredo y Unzueta in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on June 7, 1941, he began violin lessons at age five. Within two years his parents recognized exceptional ability and relocated the household to the United States for advanced instruction. They settled first in San Francisco, where Laredo performed a debut recital at eight and appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In 1953 the family shifted to Cleveland, Ohio, enabling study with Josef Gingold; there he also received guidance from Cleveland Orchestra music director George Szell, an artist he later cited as a formative influence. He next enrolled at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, working with Ivan Galamian. After capturing first prize at Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1959, Laredo made his Carnegie Hall debut the following year.

He subsequently performed as soloist with leading American and European ensembles, among them the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1960 Laredo married pianist Ruth Meckler, who later achieved prominence under the name Ruth Laredo; the couple divorced in 1974, after which he wed cellist Sharon Robinson. Together with pianist Joseph Kalichstein they established the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. The ensemble made its initial appearance at President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 inauguration and was formally constituted in 1981. It remained a fixture on chamber-music series for more than three decades, continuing performances into the 2010s and producing roughly twenty recordings, among them a complete traversal of the Brahms piano trios. Laredo further explored violin-and-piano repertory, releasing a comprehensive survey of Schubert’s works in that format with pianist Stephanie Brown on the Dorian label in 1990. He also commissioned new pieces, including composer David Ott’s duo Conversations and triple concerto, as well as Ned Rorem’s double concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra, which received its premiere in Saarbrücken, Germany.

Parallel to his solo and chamber activity, Laredo pursued conducting engagements, frequently with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. An early recording with the latter ensemble, featuring Albinoni’s Adagio and Pachelbel’s Canon in D major, appeared on the IMP Classics label in 1985. Laredo and Robinson established their home in Vermont, where he served as music director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra from 1999 to 2021. Across his discography, encompassing trio projects and other collaborations, he has issued approximately seventy recordings; the most recent, the 2014 album Two x Four, was made with former student Jennifer Koh. In 2012 he joined the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he continued to teach into the early 2020s.