Master Class

Lothar Strauß

Lothar Strauß is one of Germany’s leading concertmasters. He began studying the violin at an early age and, at the age of 15, was admitted to the master class of Werner Scholz at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where he quickly established a reputation as a rising artist. Already during his studies, he was offered concertmaster positions in Berlin and Dresden. Following the advice of his teacher, however, he chose instead to gain initial orchestral experience as a substituting tutti violinist at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. After unanimously winning an audition, the 22-year-old student was appointed the youngest Principal Concertmaster of the Staatskapelle Berlin. He has acquired an extensive repertoire encompassing violin literature from the Baroque period to contemporary music, as well as complete cycles of the symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Mahler, Bruckner, and many other major symphonic works. His repertoire also includes more than 50 operas and ballets. Guest performances with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Otmar Suitner, Daniel Barenboim, and Christian Thielemann have taken him to numerous concert halls throughout Germany’s cultural landscape, to most major European music centers, the Middle East, the most important concert halls in Asia, and to North, Central, and South America. For 45 years, he has devoted himself to educating younger generations. After teaching at the music universities in Berlin and Leipzig, he has been a faculty member of the Orchestra Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin since its founding in 1997. In 2015, he was appointed to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Languages: German, English