Julia Fischer

“… an excellent soloist with great charisma … The fact is that this piece still offers a captivating listening experience when played as Julia Fischer does: with such a strong presence, such elegant virtuosity, and so far removed from any trace of sentimentality. Her sound is radiant, her temperament exhilarating, and she fills the dramatic arcs with vibrancy.” Neue Zürcher Zeitung, concert review of the Bruch Concerto in Zurich “Fischer let us hear every note, she presented every single measure with complete technical assurance and with a brilliant, seamless sound.” The Guardian, concert review of the Dvořák Concerto in London Violinist Julia Fischer was born in Munich in 1983 and received piano lessons from her mother at the age of three. Shortly thereafter, she also began playing the violin, and after three years at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg, she became a student of the renowned violin professor Ana Chumachenco at the Munich University of Music. At the tender age of eleven, she won the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in 1995. The following year, she took first place at the Eurovision Competition for Young Instrumentalists in Lisbon. An international career followed, leading to her breakthrough in 2003 with Lorin Maazel at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York. In 2007, Julia Fischer received the “Artist of the Year” award at the Gramophone Awards. She is one of the most sought-after artists of her generation and now regularly performs at major festivals, including the BBC Proms, as well as with leading orchestras and conductors in Europe and North America. Highlights of her 2010–11 season included her debut performance at the Salzburg Easter Festival with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle in April 2011, as well as the Berg Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst. In the 2011–12 season, she gave the world premiere of Matthis Pintscher’s new concerto, Mar’eh, written for her, at the Lucerne Festival with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This was followed by a European tour. She also completed a German tour with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under David Zinman, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Yuri Temirkanov, and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under Juraj Valcuha. Additionally, she toured the USA and Europe with pianist Milana Chernyavska. In the 2012–13 season, she is a guest artist at the Konzerthaus Berlin. She opened the season with Brahms’ Double Concerto alongside her long-time chamber music partner Daniel Müller-Schott under the direction of the new chief conductor Iván Fischer. Further concerts with the orchestra, as well as chamber music and a solo concert, will follow, and the guest artist position will conclude in June 2013 with a performance by the Julia Fischer Quartet, founded in 2011, which has already received overwhelming praise from audiences and critics. In spring 2013, she will perform works by Bach, Ysaÿe, and Hindemith as solo concerts at Zankel Hall (Carnegie Hall) and Princeton University. Shortly thereafter, she will tour Spain and Germany with the National Symphony Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, and Germany with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under Zinman. Simultaneously, her 2012 recording of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Dvořák’s Violin Concerto with Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra will be released on Decca. Another highlight will be her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic in May 2013, where she will perform the violin concertos by Beethoven and Salonen under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen. Throughout her career as a violinist, Julia Fischer has never neglected playing the piano. She made her debut as a professional pianist in 2008 at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt with Grieg’s Piano Concerto — and on the same evening, she also played Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3. This enthusiastically acclaimed concert evening was released on DVD by Decca in 2010. Fischer has been exclusively signed to Decca since 2008, and her first album on the new label — Bach Concertos with her as concertmaster and soloist of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields — was released in January 2009 to great critical acclaim (MIDEM Classical Award 2009 “Instrumentalist of the Year”). She has also won many awards for her previous recordings, including the coveted German Echo Prize in 2005 and 2007, the BBC Music Magazine Award, the prestigious French Diapason d’Or, and the Choc du Monde de la Musique. For her second Decca recording, Paganini’s 24 Caprices, she received a Grammy® nomination in 2010. Poème, an atmospheric, lyrical collection of impressionistic works for violin and orchestra, was released in 2011. Her latest release is the Dvořák-Bruch album, which will be released in spring 2013. Julia Fischer, who considers teaching an important aspect of her musical career, teaches at the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt as Germany’s youngest professor. 12/2012