Isabelle Faust

Violinist Isabelle Faust rose to prominence during the 1990s, establishing herself among the most adaptable performers active today through her command of both period and contemporary instruments and a repertory that extends from Baroque masterpieces to freshly commissioned scores. Her duo partnership with pianist Alexander Melnikov has drawn particular attention for its innovative readings of works for violin and piano.

Born in Esslingen near Stuttgart in what was then West Germany on March 19, 1972, Faust first encountered the instrument by accompanying her father to lessons at age five. Although his own abilities remained unremarkable, instructors quickly recognized her ability to surmount any technical obstacle presented to her. A household string quartet that included her brother, the violist Boris Faust, together with instruction from Denes Zsigmondy and Christoph Poppen, further refined her technique. After capturing first prize at the International Leopold Mozart Competition in Augsburg in 1987, she relocated to Paris for nine years, deliberately choosing practical immersion over formal conservatory study. Noting that her given name sometimes led listeners to assume French nationality, she soon secured prominent bookings, making her American debut in 1995 with the Utah Symphony and appearing with leading German ensembles such as the Hamburg Philharmonic under Yehudi Menuhin. Later seasons brought engagements with major orchestras worldwide.

Her debut recording, a 1997 account of Bartók’s violin sonatas with pianist Ewa Kupiec issued on Harmonia Mundi, earned Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year award; subsequent releases garnered additional honors, among them the Diapason d’Or de l’Année for her 2010 cycle of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. The great majority of her discs have appeared on the Harmonia Mundi label. In 2004 she joined the faculty of Berlin’s University of the Arts.

Early in the 2000s Faust began collaborating regularly with Melnikov; their 2018 Harmonia Mundi recording of Mozart’s violin sonatas, informed by historical performance practice, received widespread praise, and the pair have maintained an active recording schedule into the 2020s. She has also released Mozart’s violin concertos with Il Giardino Armonico, a project that secured Gramophone Awards for both Recording of the Year and Best Concerto Recording. Exceptionally productive in the studio, Faust has issued more than fifty albums, four of them in 2021 alone, all on Harmonia Mundi and encompassing composers from Mozart to Peter Eötvös. Her 2023 releases included concertos by Stravinsky and Locatelli as well as the solo album Solo; in 2024 she returned with a live recording of Britten’s violin concerto alongside the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.