Julia Fischer

Julia Fischer, born in Munich, Germany, is of German-Slovakian parentage. Her mother came from the German minority in Slovakia and emigrated from Košice in Slovakia to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972. Her German father moved in the same year from Eastern Saxony to West Germany.

She has worked with internationally acclaimed conductors, such as Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Yakov Kreizberg, Yuri Temirkanov, Sir Neville Marriner, David Zinman, Jun Märkl, Ruben Gazarian, Marek Janowski, Herbert Blomstedt, Michael Tilson Thomas and with a variety of top German, American, British, Polish, French, Italian, Swiss, Dutch, Norwegian, Russian, Japanese, Czech and Slovakian orchestras. Julia Fischer has performed in most European countries, the United States, Brazil and Japan; in concerts broadcast on TV and radio in every major European country, as well as on many US, Japanese and Australian radio stations.

In 2003 Julia Fischer – already for six years present in US concert halls at that time – appeared with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Lorin Maazel playing the Sibelius Violin concerto in New York's Lincoln Center as well as the Mendelssohn Violin concerto in Vail, CO. Her 2003 Carnegie Hall debut received standing ovations for her performance of Brahms Double concerto with Lorin Maazel, Han–Na Chang and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Fischer has been on orchestral tours with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dresden Philharmonic.

In autumn 2004 the label PentaTone released Julia Fischer's first CD: Russian violin concertos with Yakov Kreizberg and the Russian National Orchestra. It received ravishing reviews, climbed into to the top five bestselling classical records in Germany within a few days and received an "Editor's Choice" from "Gramophone" in January 2005. Other critically acclaimed recordings include sonatas and partitas for solo violin of J. S. Bach, the Mozart violin concertos and the Tchaikovsky violin concerto.

Julia Fischer began her studies before her fourth birthday, when she received her first violin lesson from Helge Thelen; a few months later she started studying the piano with her mother Viera Fischer. She began her formal violin education at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg, under the tutelage of Lydia Dubrowskaya. At the age of nine Julia Fischer was admitted to the Munich Academy of Music, where she continues to work with Ana Chumachenco.

Among the most prestigious competitions that Julia Fischer has won are the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition under Lord Yehudi Menuhin's supervision, where she won both the first prize and the special prize for best Bach solo work performance in 1995 and the Eighth Eurovision Competition for Young Instrumentalists in 1996, which was broadcast in 22 countries from Lisbon. In 1997 Julia Fischer was awarded the “Prix d‘Espoir” by the Foundation of European Industry. She recently had the opportunity to play Mozart's own violin in the room in which he was born at Salzburg to honour his 250th birthday.

Her active repertoire spans from Bach to Penderecki, from Vivaldi to Shostakovitch, containing over 40 works with orchestra and about 60 works of chamber music.