Axel Strauss (born 1974) is a German violinist, and a professor at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal.
At the age of seventeen he won the silver medal at the Enescu Competition in Romania and has been recognized with many other awards, including top prizes in the Bach, Wieniawski and Kocian competitions. He studied at the Music Academies of Lübeck and Rostock with Petru Munteanu. Strauss has been residing in the United States since 1996 when he began working with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School and became her teaching assistant in 1998.
He was the first German artist to ever win the international Naumburg Violin Award in New York. In 2007, he was the violinist in the world premiere of "Two Awakenings and a Double Lullaby", written for him by composer Aaron Jay Kernis.
His recordings include the Brahms violin concerto (BPOlive), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words (Naxos), the violin version of the Clarinet sonatas, op. 120, by Brahms (Organum) and the duo for violin and cello, op. 7, by Zoltán Kodály (Oehms Classics). In December 2009, Naxos released his recording of the 24 Caprices by Pierre Rode. Amadeus Press has issued a DVD featuring Strauss in concert at Steinway Hall, New York. His chamber music partners include Menahem Pressler, Kim Kashkashian, Joel Krosnick, Robert Mann and Bernard Greenhouse.
Srauss has appeared as soloist with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Academy Orchestra, and with orchestras in Budapest, Hamburg, New York, Seoul, Shanghai, Bucharest, and Cincinnati, among others. He has also appeared as guest concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Strauss performs on a violin by Giovanni Francesco Pressenda, Turin 1845.
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. He has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perlman has won 16 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Emmy Awards.
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.
Pamela Frank is an American violinist, with an active international career across a varied range of performing activity. Her musicianship was recognized in 1999 with the Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists. In addition to her career as a performer, Frank holds the Herbert R. and Evelyn Axelrod Chair in Violin Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she has taught since 1996, and is also an adjunct professor of Violin at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music since 2018.
James Ehnes, is a Canadian concert violinist and violist.
Ilya Kaler is a Russian-born violinist. Born and educated in Moscow, Kaler is the only person to have won Gold Medals at all three of the International Tchaikovsky Competition ; the Sibelius ; and the Paganini.
Leonidas Kavakos is a Greek violinist and conductor. He has won several international violin competition prizes, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and Indianapolis competitions. He is an Onassis Foundation scholar. He has also recorded for record labels such as Sony/BMG and BIS. As a conductor, he was an artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg and has been a guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
James Zuill Bailey, better known as Zuill Bailey is an American Grammy Award-winning cello soloist, chamber musician, and artistic director. A graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the Juilliard School, he has appeared in recital and with major orchestras internationally. He is a professor of cello and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at El Paso. Bailey’s extensive recording catalogue are released on TELARC, Avie, Steinway and Sons, Octave, Delos, Albany, Sono Luminus, Naxos, Azica, Concord, EuroArts, ASV, Oxingale and Zenph Studios.
Philippe Quint is an American classical violinist.
Augustin Hadelich is an Italian-German-American Grammy-winning classical violinist.
Nicolas Koeckert is a German violinist of Brazilian origin.
Lars Vogt was a German classical pianist, conductor and academic teacher. Noted by The New York Times for his interpretations of Brahms, Vogt performed as a soloist with major orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic. He was the music director of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris at the time of his death and also served as the music director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia. He ran a festival of chamber music, Spannungen, from 1998, and succeeded his teacher Karl-Heinz Kämmerling as professor of piano at the Musikhochschule Hannover.
Dong-Suk Kang is a South Korean violinist.
The Vlach Quartet is the name of two consecutive classical string quartet musical ensembles, based in Prague, both of which were founded by members of the Vlach family. The original Vlach Quartet was founded by Josef Vlach in 1950 and wound up in 1975. In 1982 the New Vlach Quartet was founded by his daughter Jana Vlachova, with guidance her father, and came to be known as the Vlach Quartet of Prague, and is still active as a musical ensemble.
Bartłomiej "Bartek" Nizioł is a Polish violinist playing in a bel canto style. His interpretations tend to be objective and comprehensive.
Leonard Hokanson was an American pianist who achieved prominence in Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.
David Chan is an American violinist, conductor, and a concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He is one of the most sought-after violinists of his generation. He is a prizewinner at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, among many others. As a conductor, Chan is praised for his deep understanding of the music and interpretive depth.
Kirill Troussov is a German violinist and violin teacher based in Munich, Germany.
Kinga Augustyn is a New York City-based virtuoso violinist. She has established an international career having performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras, recitalist, and recording artist.
Nikki Chooi is an American-Canadian classical violinist. Nikki is currently Concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He previously served as Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. He is a prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition and Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition and 1st prize winner of the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Montreal Symphony Manulife Competition, and Klein International Strings Competition.
The Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13, TrV 137, was written by Richard Strauss from 1884 to 1885. An early chamber music work of the then 20-year-old composer, it shows considerable influence from Johannes Brahms. It is scored for a standard piano quartet consisting of a piano, violin, viola, and cello. At the premiere on 8 December 1885 in Weimar, Strauss himself performed the piano part.