One of the world´s leading violinists, Julia Fischer is a versatile musician also known for her extraordinary abilities as a concert pianist, a chamber musician and a violin teacher. Born in Munich to German-Slovakian parents, Julia received her first violin lessons at the age of 3 and her first piano lessons shortly after from her mother Viera Fischer. At the age of 9 she started studying with the renowned violin professor Ana Chumachenco, later becoming her successor. The first prize at the International Yehudi Menuhin Competition in 1995 was one of the milestones in her early career and she has since performed with top orchestras worldwide frequently working with renowned conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Muti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuri Temirkanov and Franz Welser-Möst.

Julia Fischer starts the 2018/2019 seasons touring Europe with her long-time chamber music partners Nils Mönkemeyer and Daniel Müller-Schott. She then embarks on a tour of Asia with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski performing in Seoul, Taipei, Beijing and Shanghai as well as with the Dresdner Philharmonie and Michael Sanderling with concerts in Japan and Korea. She is joined by violinist Augustin Hadelich for an extensive tour of Germany with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, an orchestra she frequently collaborates with. Highlights of the last season include concerts with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester under Kirill Petrenko at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and New York’s Carnegie Hall and a residency with the Wiener Symphoniker and Philippe Jordan.

In 2011 Julia Fischer founded her own Quartet with Alexander Sitkovetsky, Nils Mönkemeyer and Benjamin Nyffenegger and continues to tour extensively in this formation. Her concert at the Alte Oper Frankfurt in 2010 marked her debut as a pianist: She performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto in the second half of the concert, having played Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in the first half. The performance is available on a Decca-released DVD. Teaching is another integral part of her musical life as she continues to nurture and guide young talent. In February 2019, she will perform together with her students Eva Zavaro and Louis Vandory with the Kammerakademie Potsdam at the Berliner Philharmonie. She regularly gives masterclasses at Musikferien at Starnberger See.

Over the course of her artistic career, Julia Fischer has released numerous critically acclaimed and awarded CD and DVD recordings, first under the Pentatone label and later under Decca. Breaking new ground in the classical music market, she has recently launched her own music platform, the JF CLUB, which offers exclusive audio and video footage, previews of her new recordings as well as personal insight into music and her work. The six solo sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe, César Franck’s Sonata in A Major and Karol Szymanowski’s Sonata in D Minor are all available exclusively on JF CLUB.

Julia Fischer holds numerous awards including the Federal Cross of Merit, Gramophone Award and the German Culture Prize. She plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1742) as well as an instrument made by Phillipp Augustin (2018).