Miriam Fried has played with virtually every major orchestra in the United States and Europe and has been a frequent guest with the principal orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as with the Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony. Recital tours have taken her to all of the major music centers in North America and to Brussels, London, Milan, Munich, Rome, Paris, Salzburg, Stockholm and Zurich.

In recent seasons, her schedule has included orchestral engagements with such prestigious ensembles as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Czech Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Mexico, the Japan Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Milwaukee Symphony and the BBC Philharmonic. She recently premiered a violin concerto written for her by Donald Erb with the Grand Rapids Symphony and recorded the work for Koss. Since 1993 she has been Artistic Director of the Ravinia Institute, one of the country’s leading summer programs for young musicians. Her involvement there has included regular performances at the Ravinia Festival, including recitals and concerts with the Chicago Symphony.
Ms. Fried’s highly praised 1985 New York recitals of the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin were the culmination of three years of international performances. She recently returned to this music, recording the complete Sonatas and Partitas in France, which were released in the spring of 1999 on the Lyrinx label. She has also made a prize-winning recording of the Sibelius Concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic under the direction of Okko Kamu, available on the Finlandia label, which has become a best seller.

Chamber music plays an important role in Ms. Fried’s musical life. She is a member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet and has collaborated with such distinguished artists as Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Garrick Ohlsson, Nathaniel Rosen and her husband, violinist/violist Paul Biss. She has been featured guest artist at Chamber Music East (Boston), the La Solla Chamber Festival. the Lockenhaus Festival and the Naantali Festival (Finland).

Miriam Fried plays a particularly noteworthy violin, a 1718 Stradivarius that is said to have been the favorite of its 18th-century owner, composer-conductor Louis Spohr. It was also owned by Regina Strinasacchi who, it is thought, used the instrument to play with Mozart the Sonata in B-flat, K. 454, which had been written for her.

Miriam Fried’s successful solo career was launched in 1968 after she was awarded First Prize in Genoa’s Paganini International Competition. Three years later she claimed top honors in the Queen Elizabeth International Competition where she gairied further world attention by becoming the first woman.ever to win the prestigious award. Born in Romania, Fried emigrated to Israel with her family at age 2. There her upbringing included lessons with Alice Fenyves in Tel Aviv, as well as the opportunity to meet and play for the many great violinists who visited Israel, including Isaac Stern, Nathan Milstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szeryng, Zino Francescatti and Erica Morini. She came to the United States as a protegee of Isaac Stern and continued her studies with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School and with Joseph Gingold at Indiana University. Praise for Ms. Fried’s musicianship has come from throughout the world, but perhaps the highest compliment comes from her former teacher Mr. Gingold, who described Fried as “one of the great violinists of this age.”