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Julia Fischer

About this Artist

Seventeen year-old JULIA FISCHER has already established herself as one of the foremost young violinists. Critics in Germany have said that she is, “not only a talent, but a full-fledged phenomenal violinist,” (Die Welt) and that she is, “only 15, but stylistically already mature…. She takes your breath away,” (Stuttgarter Nachrichten). Of her 1999 Concertgebouw recital debut, the music critic for Die Volkskrant wrote, “After Schubert’s Sonata in A, op. 162, where astonishment about her abilities created musical ecstasy, in Grieg and Brahms she arrived at interpretations that only a few mature violinists could equal.”

Ms. Fischer has worked with such internationally acclaimed conductors as Christoph Eschenbach, Lorin Maazel, Yehudi Menuhin, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Bernhard Klee, Asher Fish, Marek Janowski, Johannes Goritzki, Michael Helmrath, Jeffrey Tate, Simone Young, and Justus Frantz and with a variety of leading German, British, Polish, French, Italian and Slova-kian orchestras. Ms. Fischer has performed in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Slovakia, France, the United Kingdom, Portu-gal, Cyprus and Japan, with concerts broadcast on TV and radio in every major European country, as well as on many US public radio stations.

In the recent 1999-2000 season, Ms. Fischer performed the Sibelius Concerto with Lorin Maazel in a concert marking the 70th anniversary of the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra; returned to the Ravinia Festival in recital with Maestro Eschenbach at the piano; performed Brahms’ Violin Concerto with Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; and concertized throughout Germany with orchestras such as the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra, the Kölner Kammerorchester and the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker.

The summer was especially busy for Ms. Fischer: she made her Wigmore Hall recital debut with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the piano in June; performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra and Jeffrey Tate in a return appearance in July; and in August, made two auspicious debuts: with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and Marek Janowski and with the Mostly Mozart Festival in a performance of Mozart’s A-major Violin Concerto under the baton of Hans Vonk.

In the current and future seasons, Ms. Fischer makes her debut with the Tonhalle Orchester in Zurich in performances of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and revives the piece, in her continuing collaboration with Christoph Eschenbach, for her return to the Ravinia Festival and the Chicago Symphony. Ms. Fischer performs Mozart’s A-major Concerto with the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of Maestro Eschenbach and also for her debut with the Bergen Philharmonic under the baton of Simone Young. Ms. Fischer will perform in recital under the auspices of such esteemed presenters as the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Vancouver Recital Society, Cal Performances in Berkeley, the International Musikfestwochen Luzern, and at the Eclectic Orange Festival in Los Angeles.

The 1998-1999 season marked important debuts for Ms. Fischer, including her U.S. orchestral debut with the Minnesota Orchestra and a recital in the Ravinia Festival “Rising Star” series. She also made her debut with the Chicago

Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Eschenbach in Dvorak’s Violin Concerto. In Europe, she made her Concertgebouw debut with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and performed in concert with the Bayerischer Rundfunk under Lorin Maazel, the Hanover Radio Orchestra, and the Dresden Philharmonic.

Ms. Fischer began her studies at the age of four, when she received her first violin lesson from Helge Thelen; a few months later she began piano lessons with her mother Viera Fischer. Ms. Fischer began her formal schooling at the Leopold Mozart Con-servatory in Augsburg, under the tutelage of Lydia Dubrowskaya. At the age of nine Ms. Fischer was admitted to the Munich Academy of Music, where she continues to work with Ana Chumachenko.

Since 1989 Ms. Fischer has taken part in eight national and international soloist competitions, in which she has won a total of eight first prizes, five for her vio-lin and three for her piano performances. Among the most prestigious competitions that Ms. Fischer has won are the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, for which she won both the first prize and the special prize for best Bach solo work in 1995; the Eighth Eurovision Competition for Young Instrumentalists in 1996, which was broadcast in 22 countries from Lisbon; the “Prix d’Espoir” of the Foundation of European Industry in 1997; and EIG Music Award in 1998.

Ms. Fischer resides in Munich with her mother and brother.