OLIVER LEWIS
"WORLD'S FASTEST VIOLINIST"
VIDEOS
AUDIO
'The virtuoso tantalized the audience with his musical dexterity and charm' Trinidad News
'Virtuosic, seamless brilliance, the audience asked for more' London Evening Standard
'Technically exemplary performance, an exciting aural experience' The Strad
'Magnificent talent, he took the audience into another world' Guardian
'Exciting performance, full of swagger and panache' Gramophone
'A fine player ... underlying musical intelligence' Independant
'His noble tone breathed with artistic phrasing' Der Bund
'Violinist Oliver Lewis was breath-taking' Yorkshire Times
'Lewis left the audience mesmerized' Daily Express
'Hyper-active bow shredding mania' Tulsa World
'Mesmerizing gypsy élan' Der Bund
REVIEWS
In October 2010 Oliver Lewis became the Guinness Book of Record’s World’s Fastest Violinist, after playing the Flight of the Bumblebee faster than any other violinist in history, live on BBC One's Blue Peter. He broke his record again in 2011 on the Ellen DeGeneres show in the US.
Oliver started playing the violin at the age of 8, and become leader of the National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain when he was 12. Winning scholarships to the Purcell School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music, and the Bern Conservatoire, he studied with some of the world's finest teachers, including Carl Pini, David Takeno, Jack Glickman, Igor Ozim and Wenxun Chen. He made his concerto debut in 1991 in Switzerland, playing Bruch’s G minor Violin Concerto and Ravel’s Tzigane as soloist with the Bern Symphony Orchestra. In 1991 he became the leader and soloist of the Heidelberg Chamber Orchestra, and toured Europe with them for many years. During this time he also made several CD recordings of chamber music for Guild Music, and his recordings of Elgar’s Violin Sonata and the complete works for violin and piano by Eugene Goossens (with pianist Jeremy Filsell) received a double five-star award from Classic CD Magazine. He made his London debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1997, and his UK concerto debut in 1999 as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Bruch’s G minor Violin Concerto. His recording of the title music to the film Ladies in Lavender (2004) - also as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - became a Classic FM Hall of Fame hit. He recorded Bach’s G minor Fugue for part of the soundtrack to Ladies in Lavender, and played all of the solo gypsy violin music in the 'Master of the House' scene on the sound track to the 2012 blockbuster film Les Misérables.
Since 2001 Oliver has been the onstage solo electric violinist star of the popular Irish dance show Spirit of the Dance, notching up over 2000 performances with them worldwide, and he continues to tour with them to this day. Collaborating with the show's music producer, Dave Williams, he created Deviations Project - a unique classical crossover group which was signed up to Neurodisc Records in the US in 2007. They produced three albums in total, and the huge popularity of their music peaked in 2009, when their Christmas album Adeste Fiddles reached #16 in the US Billboard Classical Crossover Chart. From 2015 - 2018 Oliver toured the UK as solo violinist with the shows The Last Tango and Tango Moderno, starring as the onstage tango violinist alongside World Tango Champions Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, stars of the British TV show Strictly Come Dancing.
Oliver has appeared in films and commercials, playing the concert violinist lead role in a series of Europe-wide TV adverts for Opel cars, the featured violinist in two Christmas TV commercials for M&S, and was featured in the Cadburys Olympics TV commercial, in which he got to show off his record breaking violin speed.
Oliver Lewis is a D'Addario Artist and endorses their products.