Gunar Letzbor

Baroque violinist Gunar Letzbor came of age amid the lively historical-performance scenes that flourished across Austria and Germany during the 1980s, eventually establishing his own ensemble, Ars Antiqua Austria, which he continues to lead. He has combined performing with teaching and writing.

Born in Austria in 1961, Letzbor trained at Salzburg’s Mozarteum in violin, composition, and conducting. An encounter with Nikolaus Harnoncourt sparked his fascination with early music; after completing his studies in 1985, he moved to Cologne to work further with violinist and conductor Reinhard Goebel. Throughout the latter half of the 1980s he performed with several leading period-instrument groups in German-speaking countries, among them Musica Antiqua Köln, the Clemencic Consort, the Wiener Akademie, and Armonico Tributo Basel.

In 1995 Letzbor formed Ars Antiqua Austria and has remained its artistic director. The ensemble began presenting an annual concert series at Vienna’s Konzerthaus in 2002 and added a second series at Linz’s Brucknerhaus in 2008. Under his guidance the group has concentrated on the long-overlooked repertoire of Austrian Baroque composers, with Letzbor himself tackling the technically demanding solo writing of Heinrich Ignaz von Biber; this focus has led to frequent international engagements, including tours throughout Europe as well as in the United States and Japan.

Ars Antiqua Austria has issued an extensive and unusually active discography under Letzbor’s direction, appearing on the Chesky, Challenge Classics, and Pan Classics labels, among others. Five new recordings by the ensemble were released in 2011 alone; in 2018 the group devoted an album to the little-known Austrian composer Rupert Ignaz Mayr.

Letzbor has held violin professorships at the University of Lübeck and the University of Vienna and has published a manual on violin technique.