Practice Slowly: Garrett on Guarneri, Work Without Borders, and the Summer in Regensburg
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When Sperb reaches him, Garrett is in Berlin — one of his home cities, as he calls it — after a press shoot that ran past 11:30 pm the night before. He is in what he describes as “Classical mode,” deep in preparation for a Deutsche Grammophon album set to arrive in late 2026. The tour schedule he lays out is anything but restful: 2025 already took him across the USA, Asia, Scandinavia and Europe; 2026 brings more dates in Germany, Italy, and possibly Poland.
Asked about work-life balance, he is disarmingly direct:
Twenty years after his first crossover album, he still describes himself as a pioneer — always venturing into new territory. What most audiences miss, he admits, is how much of the authorship belongs to him: every crossover album since 2006 has been arranged by him, and the same goes for classical records like Legacy or Classic Romance. Alongside violin, he also studied composition in New York — but the public still tends to see him primarily as the player, not the one choosing, staging and arranging each project.
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The perfectionist label he doesn’t deny. In a friendly jab, comedian Hannes Ringlstetter once called him a Kontrolletti — a control freak. Garrett’s response is classic Garrett: absolutely, and in every millisecond. When a performance is a millisecond late, he notices.
Which leads to what might be the most striking moment of the interview — how, exactly, a human being plays thirteen notes in a single second. The answer comes from his teacher at Juilliard, violin legend Itzhak Perlman:
A paradox the young Garrett absorbed early and has stayed faithful to ever since.
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The original headline — Few artists have this luxury — refers to his instruments. Garrett owns three Guarneri violins and a Stradivari, a collection he calls almost surreal:
For outdoor concerts, though, he’s pragmatic rather than risk-loving. He performs on a 19th-century Jean-Baptiste Guillaume Guarneri copy — the tone, he explains, is identical once the pickup is on the instrument, and a centuries-old masterpiece has no business facing uncertain summer weather on tour.
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As for Regensburg itself: a regular visitor, he will bring the Millennium Symphony open-air program — pop and rock classics from the past two decades, from Beyoncé and Rihanna to Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift — arranged for symphony orchestra and sized for the outdoor stage. “Music to dance to, to be pulled out of everyday life and simply enjoy,” he tells Sperb, adding that the Schloss grounds are one of his favourite outdoor stages.
The concert takes place on 14 July 2026, as part of the Millennium Symphony Open Air 2026 tour. Tickets and full info via Odeon Concerte and schlossfestspiele-regensburg.de.
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The full original interview — in German — is available on Mittelbayerische Zeitung. Interview by Marianne Sperb. All quotes © Mittelbayerische Zeitung / Mediengruppe Bayern.