Biography
Violinist Mirijam Contzen maintains an unusually broad range that stretches from Baroque repertoire through the present day. Beyond her solo work she maintains an active role in chamber music, having established the Serafino Quartet, and she also serves as both festival director and university instructor.
Born in 1976 in the modest Westphalian community of Lünen, Contzen grew up with a violinist mother who placed an instrument in her hands at age two. Seven years old, she gave her first public performance of a Mozart concerto; the event was attended by violinist Tibor Varga, who immediately took her on as pupil and guide. By sixteen she was already touring internationally as a prodigy, and her profile rose further in 2001 when she received Germany’s ECHO Klassik Rising Star award. The honor opened doors to principal appearances with major ensembles throughout Germany and beyond, among them the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. She remains one of the relatively few European soloists to have performed repeatedly across South Africa. Although closely identified with historical-performance advocate Reinhard Goebel, Contzen has collaborated with conductors spanning several stylistic domains, from Baroque specialist Christopher Hogwood to figures active in Romantic and modern repertory. An avid chamber musician, she has shared stages with Emanuel Ax, Janine Jansen, and Joshua Bell; in 2011 she launched the Serafino Quartet, which has since welcomed Ax, Bell, Jansen, Mischa Maisky, and Giovanni Guzzo among its guests. That same commitment to collective music-making led her to co-found the Schloss Cappenberg Music Festival in 2005, an event that still thrives.
Her discography opened in 2001 with the Arte Nova release Favourite Violin Pieces; subsequent projects appeared on Oehms Classics, and beginning in 2020 she has recorded for Sony Classical. Two albums issued that year presented the violin concertos of Franz Clement and the chamber collection Beethoven’s World. Contzen holds a professorship in violin at the University of the Arts Berlin.
Born in 1976 in the modest Westphalian community of Lünen, Contzen grew up with a violinist mother who placed an instrument in her hands at age two. Seven years old, she gave her first public performance of a Mozart concerto; the event was attended by violinist Tibor Varga, who immediately took her on as pupil and guide. By sixteen she was already touring internationally as a prodigy, and her profile rose further in 2001 when she received Germany’s ECHO Klassik Rising Star award. The honor opened doors to principal appearances with major ensembles throughout Germany and beyond, among them the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. She remains one of the relatively few European soloists to have performed repeatedly across South Africa. Although closely identified with historical-performance advocate Reinhard Goebel, Contzen has collaborated with conductors spanning several stylistic domains, from Baroque specialist Christopher Hogwood to figures active in Romantic and modern repertory. An avid chamber musician, she has shared stages with Emanuel Ax, Janine Jansen, and Joshua Bell; in 2011 she launched the Serafino Quartet, which has since welcomed Ax, Bell, Jansen, Mischa Maisky, and Giovanni Guzzo among its guests. That same commitment to collective music-making led her to co-found the Schloss Cappenberg Music Festival in 2005, an event that still thrives.
Her discography opened in 2001 with the Arte Nova release Favourite Violin Pieces; subsequent projects appeared on Oehms Classics, and beginning in 2020 she has recorded for Sony Classical. Two albums issued that year presented the violin concertos of Franz Clement and the chamber collection Beethoven’s World. Contzen holds a professorship in violin at the University of the Arts Berlin.
Albums
