She was the winner of the renowned Queen Elisabeth Contest 2001, but even more: Baiba Skride inspired the jury of this highly coveted violin contest, which is actually obligated to keeping its emotional distance, to spontaneous applause. Such a rich, mature violin performance by a finalist had seldom been heard there before.

However, this first place in the name of Queen Elisabeth proved to be a distinguished intermediate plateau in the quickly accelerating career of Baiba Skride, born in Riga in 1981. In the meantime this exceptional violin talent is a popular guest for international and German orchestras; in the summer of 2004 she debuted at the Salzburg Festival. Following a guest appearance with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG was delighted by her "lyric internalization" and her "uncommonly eloquent feeling for far-reaching musical statements"; the range of attributes which the international press has already found for Baiba Skrides is similarly succinct: "brilliant", "refined", "captivating". DIE ZEIT was also enthusiastic, reporting Skride's Tchaikovsky performance with the words: "Then a girl enters the hall, walking as if on waves and plays so reflectively and refined, so analytically and forcefully, that all wild things in this arena are tamed"

Baiba Skride is now being presented exclusively by Sony Classical for the first time on CD.