Julia Fischer

Infobox musical artist
Name = Julia Fischer

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Img_capt = Julia Fischer late 2007
Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
Born = birth date and age|1983|6|15
flagicon|GER Munich, Germany
Instrument = Violin
Genre = Classical
Occupation = violinist

Julia Fischer (born 15 june 1983) is a German violinist. By training she is also a professional pianist, but she rarely appears as such in public. [ [http://www.signandsight.com/features/1636.html www.signandsight.com, January 10, 2008] ]

Biography

Julia Fischer, born in Munich, Germany, is of German-Slovakian parentage. Her mother came from the German minority in Slovakia and immigrated 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, Zdeněk Mácal, 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 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 fall 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. Fischer said, "my mother's a pianist and I wanted to play the piano as well, but as my elder brother also played the piano, she thought it would be nice to have another instrument in the family. I agreed to try out the violin and stayed with it." ["What's On in London", 20 April 2005] 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 honor 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.

On January 1, 2008, Fischer had her unexpected public debut as a pianist. She performed Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie at the Alte Oper, Frankfurt. The concert was conducted by Matthias Pintscher, who stepped in for Sir Neville Marriner. On the same occasion she also performed the Violin Concerto no. 3 in B minor by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Instrument

Currently she plays on a Guadagnini 1750 which she purchased in summer 2004. [ [http://www.wqxr.com/cgi-bin/iowa/common-article.html?record=4045 WQXR interview on January 4, 2006] ] For four years since 2000, she had been using a Stradivarius, the 1716 Booth, on a loan from Nippon Music Foundation, an instrument that had previously belonged to Iona Brown. Before the Stradivarius, she had a Guarneri del Gesù and a Gagliano. She uses two bows, one a copy of the Heifetz Tourte by the Viennese maker Thomas Gerbeth, the other a French bow when she needs to rehair the Tourte. [ [http://www.stringsmagazine.com/article/139/139,3628,Feature-1.asp Strings magazine, May 2006, No.139] ]

Prizes and honors

Julia Fischer has won five prizes for her violin playing and three prizes for her piano playing a.o. at "Jugend musiziert". She won all eight competitions she entered.

* 1995: 1st Prize at the international Yehudi Menuhin competition, in addition to a special prize, "Best Bach Solo-work". Music journalist Edward Greenfield said, "I first heard Julia Fischer in 1995 as a 12-year-old in the Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition. Not only did she win outright in the junior category, she was manifestly more inspired than anyone in the senior category." ["Russian Violin Concertos" CD review from Gramophone magazine, January 2005]
* 1996: Winner 8th Eurovision Competition for Young Instrumentalists in Lisbon
* 1997: "Prix d'Espoir" the prize of the European music industry
* 1997: Soloist prize of the festival "Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania"
* 1998: EIG Music Award
* 2000: Promotion prize Deutschlandfunks
* 2005: ECHO Klassik Award for the CD "Russian Violin Concertos"
* 2005: Winner of the Beethoven ring
* 2006: During the celebrations of Mozart's birthday in his hometown Salzburg, Fischer played on Mozart's violin (with Daniel Müller-Schott and Jonathan Gilad). About the event she says: "During the first hour I couldn't play anything I wanted, because during the days of Mozart the violins were a lot shorter and I wasn't used to that".
* 2006: "BBC Music Magazine Awards 2006 Best Newcomer" for the CD Johann Sebastian Bach, Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (BWV 1001–1006). The jury said, “There are many recordings of Bach's works for solo violin but rarely do they reach such breathtaking heights of musicianship as this one. Julia Fischer is an incredible technician and soulful musician who does not let an ounce of ego come between the music and the listener.”
* 2007: The Classic FM Gramophone Awards Artist of the Year.
* 2007: ECHO Klassik Award for the CD "Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto"

Recordings

Family

Mother: Viera Fischer, maiden name Krenková, born in Nové Zámky Slovakia, pianist

Father: Frank-Michael Fischer, a university-educated mathematician

References

External links

* [http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Julia-Fischer/ Julia Fischer's fanclub]
* [http://www.juliafischer.com Julia Fischer's homepage]
* [http://www.jfmartists.com Julia Fischer's General Management]
* [http://www.pentatonemusic.com/ PentaTone's homepage]
* [http://www.bsomusicians.org/UserFiles/Audio/JFinterview.mp3 Audio interview from May 2006 from the website of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Musicians site]
* [http://www.stringsmagazine.com/article/139/139,3628,Feature-1.asp article featured in Strings magazine, May 2006, No. 139]
* [http://http.earthcache.net/htc-01.media.globix.net/COMP005996MOD1/Julia%20Fischer.mp3 Audio interview and Bach performance at WQXR in January 2006]
*de icon [http://www.faz.net/s/Rub4D7EDEFA6BB3438E85981C05ED63D788/Doc~E80A5073D753146B39E3EA479BAB2E398~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html „Ich muss nicht sterben, um das zu spielen“. Interview with Julia Fischer from 29 February 2008]