JULIA FISCHER

German violinist Julia Fischer is recognized worldwide for possessing a talent of uncommon ability and as an exceptionally gifted artist, reflected in the numerous awards and effusive reviews she has received for both her live performances and recordings, including being named “Artist of the Year” at The Gramophone Awards in 2007 and “Instrumentalist of the Year” at the 2009 MIDEM Classical Awards. Julia Fischer starts the 2011-12 season at the Lucerne Festival with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski and on a subsequent tour to London, Luxembourg and Frankfurt performing the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s violin concerto “Mar’eh”, a piece dedicated to Ms. Fischer. Other highlights of season include European tours with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, playing and directing a program of Mozart, Puccini and Verdi, as well as with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Yuri Temirkanov. Guest appearances will see Ms. Fischer with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Emmanuel Krivine, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and Juanjo Mena, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich with David Zinman as well as with the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra - both under the baton of Juraj Valcuha. Recital tours with pianist Milana Chernyavska will take her to Italy and Spain as well as to six cities in the US. The season is rounded off with recital and chamber music performances at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad and Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall in summer 2012. In April 2011, Decca released Ms. Fischer’s latest recording ‘Poème’ featuring Chausson's Poème, Respighi's Poema Autunnale, Suk's Fantasy in G minor and Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending to great critical acclaim. This highly poignant album is also the last recording of the late Yakov Kreizberg – a close collaborator of Ms. Fischer for years – conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. This recording was preceded by the fall 2010 release of Paganini’s 24 Caprices and her 2009 best-selling debut recording for Decca of Bach violin concertos with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Upon its U.S. release the recording became the fastest-selling classical music debut in iTunes history. Previous recordings were released on the PentaTone label. Her debut CD, a recording of Russian Violin Concertos by Khatchaturian, Prokofiev and Glazunov with the Russian National Orchestra under Yakov Kreizberg, won Germany’s coveted ECHO Award in 2005. Ms. Fischer recorded Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin in 2005 and this recording earned worldwide critical praise including the rare distinction of winning three of France’s most prestigious awards: the Diapason d’Or from Diapason; the CHOC from Le Monde de la Musique; and the highest rating from Classica Repertoire. The Bach recording also saw her awarded the BBC Music Magazine Award as “Best Newcomer” in 2006. In 2007, her Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto recording saw her awarded the ECHO award for “Instrumentalist of the Year”. Born in Munich in 1983, Ms. Fischer began learning the piano with her mother at age three and soon thereafter started taking violin lessons. She became a pupil of Ana Chumachenco at the Munich Academy of Music and at just 11-years-old, she won the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, an event that catapulted her towards a career as a soloist. Throughout her career, Ms. Fischer has always maintained her piano studies. On January 1st, 2008 she made her professional piano debut at the Alte Oper Frankfurt performing the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and conductor Matthias Pintscher. On the same program, she performed the Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 3. A DVD of this concert, recorded by Unitel Classica, was released by Decca in September 2010.