Sarah Christian

Violin

© Giorgia Bertazzi

Sarah Christian, born in Augsburg, completed her studies with Prof. Antje Weithaas at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. Between 2013 and 2016 she also held a teaching position there as assistant to Prof. Weithaas. She completed her first period of study with Prof. Igor Ozim at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg at the age of 20 with highest honors. She received further musical impulses in the form of master classes with Prof. Thomas Brandis, Donald Weilerstein, Prof. Rainer Schmidt, Maxim Vengerov and Miriam Fried.

Sarah Christian has enjoyed international success as a prize-winner in numerous competitions. Most recently, in 2013, she was awarded a prize at the International Violin Competition “Michael Hill” in Auckland (New Zealand). 2nd prize and the chamber music prize. She is a prize winner of the “International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists” and winner of the International Violin Competition “Kocian” in the Czech Republic. Prizes followed at the “International Violin Competition Henri Marteau”, where she also received the special prize for the best interpretation of a work by W. A. Mozart, as well as at the “International Competition for Violin” of the Kulturstiftung Hohenlohe in Kloster Schöntal. A special prize for the virtuoso work should also be mentioned here. At the “International Johannes Brahms Competition” in Austria she won a 1st prize. On the occasion of the “10th International Mozart Competition” in Salzburg, the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg presented the prize for the youngest finalist. In 2008 she was awarded “Best string player of the year” as well as the “Yehudi Menuhin Medal” of the University Mozarteum Salzburg. She won the International Competition for Violin “Szymon Goldberg” in Meissen and was honored with the “Szymon Goldberg Medal” as the overall winner. At the beginning of 2012 she won the 1st prize at the “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition” in Berlin as well as the prize of the “Friends of Young Musicians”.

Sarah Christian also places special emphasis on her chamber music training and development. Special impulses are to be mentioned here by the Hagen Quartet. In 2010 she reached the finals of the “German Music Competition” in Bonn in the category duo violin/piano and was accepted as a scholarship holder in the “Federal Agency Concerts of Young Artists”. As part of this, she gave concerts throughout Germany, including at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. At the Spannungen Festival in Heimbach and at the Schwetzingen Festival, she played with Lars Vogt, Jörg Widmann, Tanja Tetzlaff and others. In 2015, her chamber music series “Freistil” took place for the first time in Augsburg, which she initiated and supervised as artistic director together with cellist Maximilian Hornung. Sarah Christian pursues an active concert career that has taken her to many countries in Europe, China, Japan, South America and the USA. She has already performed as a soloist with the via-nova-chor Munich, with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Hermannstadt and Timisoara (Romania), the Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic, the Camerata Salzburg, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, the Klagenfurt Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and others.

Since 2013 she is 1st concertmaster of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In addition to projects with world-famous conductors and soloists, she especially enjoys the opportunity to conduct from the podium herself time and again. She has already made a name for herself in this position and is a regular guest with other orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin or the Kammerakademie Potsdam.

In May 2017, her debut CD with works by Schubert and Prokofiev will be released by GENUIN.