Tabea Zimmermann - viola
For many years, Tabea Zimmermann has been one of the most renowned musicians of our time. Her charismatic personality and deep musical understanding are valued equally by both her audience and her fellow musicians. Arguably the finest violist in the world today, Tabea Zimmermann owes her success not only to her exceptional talent, but also to the support of her parents, thorough training by excellent teachers, and a tireless enthusiasm to communicate her understanding and love of music to her audience.
In recent seasons, Tabea Zimmermann has showcased the viola's wide-ranging repertoire with residencies in Weimar, Luxemburg and Hamburg, where the Berlin Philharmonic joined her to perform the final concert. She will continue her series of residencies with a stint at the Bodenseefestival in May 2012. Her 2011/2012 season starts off with the Camerata Salzburg under Kent Nagano at the Salzburg Festival. Following her successful performance with the London Symphony Orchestra last year, she will again appear at the Musikfest Berlin, this time with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Leo Hussain in Wolfgang Rihms viola concerto No. 2 Über die Linie IV.
The Arcanto Quartet, with violinists Antje Weithaas and Daniel Sepec and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, continues to be a special focus for Tabea Zimmermann's chamber music activities. After a triumphant concert debut in Stuttgart in June 2004, the Arcanto Quartet went on to perform at Carnegie Hall, the Vancouver Recital Series, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Palau de la Música Barcelona, Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, Philharmonie Cologne, Konzerthaus Vienna, Tonhalle Zurich, and the Berlin Philharmonie as well as at the Edinburgh, Helsinki, Rheingau, and Montreux festivals. Following the resounding success of their first two CDs with works by Bartók and Brahms, a third CD for Harmonia Mundi with quartets by Ravel, Dutilleux, and Debussy was released in autumn 2010. After their tours in Israel in 2008, Japan in 2009, and North America in 2010, the quartet will return to Japan in January 2012. Besides being invited again to Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Auditorio Nacional de Musica Madrid, the 2011/2012 season will feature debuts at the Prinzregententheater Munich, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and Cité de la Musique Paris.
Tabea Zimmermann has inspired numerous composers to write for the viola and has introduced many new works into the standard concert and chamber music repertoire. In April 1994, she gave a highly successful world premiere of the Sonata for Solo Viola by György Ligeti, a work composed especially for her. The subsequent premieres of this work in London, New York, Paris, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, and Japan attracted great critical and public acclaim. In recent seasons, Tabea Zimmermann premiered Recicanto for Viola and Orchestra by Heinz Holliger, the viola concerto Über die Linie IV by Wolfgang Rihm, Monh by George Lentz, Notte di pasqua by Frank Michael Beyer, and, together with Antoine Tamestit, a double concerto by Bruno Mantovani.
Following the success of her Solo-CD of works by Reger and Bach with myrios classics in 2009, for which she received an Echo Klassik prize as Instrumentalist of the Year, she released an album with pianist Kirill Gerstein featuring sonatas by Johannes Brahms, Henri Vieuxtemps, and Rebecca Clarke in September 2010.
Over 30 CDs for labels such as EMI, Teldec, and Deutsche Grammophon document Tabea Zimmermann's artistry. Ars Musici released a live recording of her performance on Beethoven's own viola at the Beethovenhaus Bonn, accompanied by Hartmut Höll. Her latest concerto releases are a live recording of Berlioz's Harold in Italy under Sir Colin Davis with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Colin Davis and a recording of Bloch's Suite for Viola and Orchestra with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Steven Sloane.
Tabea Zimmermann has received several national and international awards for her outstanding artistic contributions. These include Hessischer Kulturpreis, the Rheingau Musikpreis, the International Prize Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Sienna, and the Paul-Hindemith-Prize from the city of Hanau.
Tabea Zimmermann began learning the viola at age three, and two years later began playing the piano. She studied with Ulrich Koch at the Musikhochschule Freiburg and subsequently with Sandor Vegh at the Mozarteum Salzburg. Following her studies, she received several awards at international competitions, amongst them first prizes at the 1982 Geneva International Competition and the 1984 Budapest International Competition. As a result of winning the 1983 Maurice Vieux Competition in Paris, she received a viola by the contemporary maker Etienne Vatelot on which she has been performing ever since. From 1987 to 2000, she regularly gave concerts in Düsseldorf, Jerusalem and Luxemburg with the late David Shallon, father of her two sons Yuval and Jonathan. Tabea Zimmermann held teaching posts at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken and Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt, and has been a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin since October 2002. She is married to the American conductor Steven Sloane, and their daughter Maya was born in September 2003.
In recent seasons, Tabea Zimmermann has showcased the viola's wide-ranging repertoire with residencies in Weimar, Luxemburg and Hamburg, where the Berlin Philharmonic joined her to perform the final concert. She will continue her series of residencies with a stint at the Bodenseefestival in May 2012. Her 2011/2012 season starts off with the Camerata Salzburg under Kent Nagano at the Salzburg Festival. Following her successful performance with the London Symphony Orchestra last year, she will again appear at the Musikfest Berlin, this time with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Leo Hussain in Wolfgang Rihms viola concerto No. 2 Über die Linie IV.
The Arcanto Quartet, with violinists Antje Weithaas and Daniel Sepec and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, continues to be a special focus for Tabea Zimmermann's chamber music activities. After a triumphant concert debut in Stuttgart in June 2004, the Arcanto Quartet went on to perform at Carnegie Hall, the Vancouver Recital Series, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Palau de la Música Barcelona, Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, Philharmonie Cologne, Konzerthaus Vienna, Tonhalle Zurich, and the Berlin Philharmonie as well as at the Edinburgh, Helsinki, Rheingau, and Montreux festivals. Following the resounding success of their first two CDs with works by Bartók and Brahms, a third CD for Harmonia Mundi with quartets by Ravel, Dutilleux, and Debussy was released in autumn 2010. After their tours in Israel in 2008, Japan in 2009, and North America in 2010, the quartet will return to Japan in January 2012. Besides being invited again to Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Auditorio Nacional de Musica Madrid, the 2011/2012 season will feature debuts at the Prinzregententheater Munich, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and Cité de la Musique Paris.
Tabea Zimmermann has inspired numerous composers to write for the viola and has introduced many new works into the standard concert and chamber music repertoire. In April 1994, she gave a highly successful world premiere of the Sonata for Solo Viola by György Ligeti, a work composed especially for her. The subsequent premieres of this work in London, New York, Paris, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, and Japan attracted great critical and public acclaim. In recent seasons, Tabea Zimmermann premiered Recicanto for Viola and Orchestra by Heinz Holliger, the viola concerto Über die Linie IV by Wolfgang Rihm, Monh by George Lentz, Notte di pasqua by Frank Michael Beyer, and, together with Antoine Tamestit, a double concerto by Bruno Mantovani.
Following the success of her Solo-CD of works by Reger and Bach with myrios classics in 2009, for which she received an Echo Klassik prize as Instrumentalist of the Year, she released an album with pianist Kirill Gerstein featuring sonatas by Johannes Brahms, Henri Vieuxtemps, and Rebecca Clarke in September 2010.
Over 30 CDs for labels such as EMI, Teldec, and Deutsche Grammophon document Tabea Zimmermann's artistry. Ars Musici released a live recording of her performance on Beethoven's own viola at the Beethovenhaus Bonn, accompanied by Hartmut Höll. Her latest concerto releases are a live recording of Berlioz's Harold in Italy under Sir Colin Davis with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Colin Davis and a recording of Bloch's Suite for Viola and Orchestra with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Steven Sloane.
Tabea Zimmermann has received several national and international awards for her outstanding artistic contributions. These include Hessischer Kulturpreis, the Rheingau Musikpreis, the International Prize Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Sienna, and the Paul-Hindemith-Prize from the city of Hanau.
Tabea Zimmermann began learning the viola at age three, and two years later began playing the piano. She studied with Ulrich Koch at the Musikhochschule Freiburg and subsequently with Sandor Vegh at the Mozarteum Salzburg. Following her studies, she received several awards at international competitions, amongst them first prizes at the 1982 Geneva International Competition and the 1984 Budapest International Competition. As a result of winning the 1983 Maurice Vieux Competition in Paris, she received a viola by the contemporary maker Etienne Vatelot on which she has been performing ever since. From 1987 to 2000, she regularly gave concerts in Düsseldorf, Jerusalem and Luxemburg with the late David Shallon, father of her two sons Yuval and Jonathan. Tabea Zimmermann held teaching posts at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken and Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt, and has been a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin since October 2002. She is married to the American conductor Steven Sloane, and their daughter Maya was born in September 2003.
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Photo: Marco Borggreve
Photo: Marco Borggreve
Photo: Marco Borggreve