Tabea Zimmermann

Born in 1966 in Lahr in Baden, Germany, Tabea Zimmermann began taking viola lessons at the age of three and commenced studies with Ulrich Koch at the Freiburg Musikhochschule in 1979, completing her training with Sándor Végh at the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1986–87. She won the Concours de Genève in 1982, the Concours Maurice Vieux in Paris in 1983, and the Budapest Music Competition in 1984. She was immediately engaged as a soloist by many renowned orchestras; she enjoys close collaborations in particular with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Orchestre de Paris, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Tabea Zimmermann has been artist-in-residence at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and, in the 2020–21 season, the Berliner Philharmoniker, among others. She will become Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in the 2022–23 season. Chamber music is one of the main focuses of her artistic work. She recently performed with the Spanish pianist Javier Perianes, with whom she released the album Cantilena in 2021, and she has appeared with musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker as well. Many new scores have been written especially for her, including works by György Ligeti, Heinz Holliger, Wolfgang Rihm, Bruno Mantovani, Enno Poppe, Michael Jarrell, and Pascal Rophé. She is intensively committed to the work of Paul Hindemith, for which she received the Hindemith Prize of the city of Hanau. Tabea Zimmermann has also garnered the Frankfurt Music Prize, the Hessian Culture Prize, the Premio dell’Accademia Musicale Chigiana, and, in 2020, the Siemens Music Prize. She has released some 50 multiple-award-winning CDs; her most recent recording, an account of the Brahms sextets with the Belcea Quartet and Jean-Guihen Queyras, appeared in March 2022. Tabea Zimmermann has been a professor at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin since 2002.

Lucerne Festival debut on 3 September 2019 playing Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Tugan Sokhiev.

August 2022