Julia Fischer
One of the world’s leading violinists, Julia Fischer is a versatile musician also known for her extraordinary abilities as a concert pianist, a chamber musician and a music teacher. Born in Munich to German-Slovakian parents, Julia received her first violin lessons at the age of three, and her first piano lessons shortly after from her mother Viera Fischer. At the age of nine she started studying with the renowned violin professor Ana Chumachenco, later becoming her successor at the University of Munich. The first prize at the international Yehudi Menuhin Competition in 1995 was one of the milestones in her early career and she has since performed with top orchestras worldwide, frequently collaborating with renowned conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Christian Thielemann, Alan Gilbert, Jakub Hrůša, Vladimir Jurowski, Juanjo Mena, Riccardo Muti, Vasily Petrenko, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Thomas Søndergård, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Franz Welser-Möst.
At the start of the 2024-25 season Julia Fischer returns to the Czech Philharmonic with Jakub Hrůša, to the Orchestre National de France with Cristian Măcelaru for season-opening concerts in Paris, Dijon and Besançon, and to the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Andrey Boreyko to perform three concerti in one evening: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Some of her many other season highlights include a European recital tour of major venues in Germany, Spain, Italy and Monaco alongside pianist Jan Lisiecki. In spring, the duo travels to the US stopping in Princeton, Savannah Festival, Wolf Trap, Boston, Chicago and finally New York Philharmonic’s Geffen Hall. Julia Fischer is also the soloist on an extensive European tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, and play-directs the Zurich Chamber Orchestra on a regional tour.
Julia Fischer’s musical accomplishments extend far beyond her career as a violin virtuoso. She is an enthusiastic chamber musician playing both violin and piano, a dedicated teacher, an orchestra founder and an artistic director. In 2010 she founded the Julia Fischer Quartet with violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, violist Nils Mönkemeyer and cellist Benjamin Nyffenegger and continues to tour extensively in this formation. Her concert at the Alte Oper Frankfurt in 2010 marked her debut as a pianist: She performed the Grieg Piano Concerto in the second half, having played Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in the first half. The performance is available on a Decca-released DVD. Teaching is another integral part of her musical life as she continues to nurture and guide young talent and often performs alongside her students. She regularly gives masterclasses at Musikferien at Lake Starnberg. In 2019, she founded a children’s orchestra, the Kindersinfoniker, teaming up with Johannes X. Schachtner and pianist Henri Bonamy in her hometown of Munich. Julia Fischer is also Artistic Director of the Boswil Summer festival in Switzerland together with her fellow quartet musician Benjamin Nyffenegger.
Over the course of her artistic career Julia Fischer has released numerous critically acclaimed and awarded CD and DVD recordings, first on the Pentatone label and later under Decca. In 2017, she decided to break away from the established recording industry practices and launched her own music platform, the JF CLUB, which offers exclusive audio and video footage, previews of her new recordings as well as personal insight into her music and her work to her fans and subscribers directly. César Franck’s Sonata in A major, Karol Szymanowski’s Sonata in D minor and Beethoven’s String Trio in C Minor are all available exclusively on her own music platform, the JF CLUB. In August 2021, Julia Fischer released a limited vinyl recording of Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonatas as an exclusive JF CLUB edition in collaboration with Hänssler Classic.
Julia Fischer holds numerous awards including the Federal Cross of Merit, the Gramophone Award, the German Culture Prize, the Cultural Honorary Prize of the City of Munich and the Rheingau Music Prize. She plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1742) as well as an instrument made by Philipp Augustin (2018).
