Winner of the 2005 Sibelius Competition in Helsinki, ALINA POGOSTKINA’s recent concert tours have seen her perform at some of the world’s most renowned festivals and concert venues. She has collaborated with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mikhail Pletnev, Sir Roger Norrington, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons, Paavo Järvi, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Gustavo Dudamel, Andrey Boreyko and Thomas Hengelbrock.

In the 2012/13 season Alina Pogostkina will perform with the San Francisco Symphony (under Michael Tilson Thomas), NDR Sinfonieorchester (Sakari Oramo), Dresdner Philharmoniker (Michael Sanderling), Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Mario Venzago), Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lawrence Foster) and Orchestre National de France (David Zinman). In February 2013 Pogostkina embarks on a tour with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jonathan Nott for concerts in Germany and Spain. April 2013 sees the premiere of a new violin concerto by Walter Steffens with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Martyn Brabbins at the Radialsystem in Berlin.

Past seasons have included concerts with Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel and with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy. Alina has also appeared with orchestras including the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Residentie Orkest, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Hallé, as well as the Mahler Chamber, BBC Scottish, Cincinnati Symphony, NHK Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon, Finnish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic orchestras.

An ardent chamber musician, Alina Pogostkina has worked with musicians such as Steven Isserlis, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Menahem Pressler, Christoph Eschenbach, Pekka Kuusisto, Maxim Rysanov, Jörg Widmann and Joshua Bell. Current chamber music activities focus on performances with pianist Havard Gimse and trio recitals with clarinettist Reto Bieri and pianist Diana Ketler.

Appearing in numerous radio and television recordings and broadcasts Pogostkina's passion for contemporary music in particular is evident in her recording of Peteris Vasks’ complete body of works for violin, released in Spring 2012.

Pogostkina performs frequently at festivals including the Schwetzinger Festspiele, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Bergen and Aspen, Beethovenfest Bonn, Salzburger Festspiele, Edinburgh International Festival – where she appeared with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Robin Ticciati – as well as the Dresden Musikfestspiele and Lockenhaus Festivals.

Born in St. Petersburg, Alina Pogostkina moved to Germany in 1992, receiving her first violin lessons from her father. She was a student of Antje Weithaas at Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler.