Tabea Zimmermann

Extraordinary talent, a profound understanding of music and a natural way of playing: Tabea Zimmermann is one of the leading contemporary viola players worldwide. She conveys her interpretation of the music and her love for it to her audience with indefatigable enthusiasm. In 2010, she has been awarded the prestigious Echo Klassik as “Instrumentalist of the Year“
Being named Artist in Residence at the Cologne and Luxemburg Philharmony, as well as the Kunstfest Weimar, Bozar Festival Brussels and the Elbphilharmonie Konzerte in Hamburg, Tabea Zimmermann recently presented the whole range of her musical versatility, from solo recitals and chamber music events to performances with the most prominent orchestras. As a soloist, Tabea Zimmermann makes regular guest performances with the most important orchestras, among them the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Tabea Zimmermann was able to arouse interest for the viola among many contemporary composers and introduced a number of new works into the concert and chamber music repertoire. In 1994, György Ligeti dedicated his Sonata for solo viola to her – and this was followed by premieres of Heinz Holliger’s Recicanto for Viola and Orchestra, the Viola concert no. 2 Über die Linie IV (Across the Line IV) by Wolfgang Rihm, Monh by Georges Lentz, Notte di pasqua by Frank Michael Beyer and Bruno Mantovani’s double concerto.
More than 30 CDs, published with, for example, EMI, Teldec and Deutsche Grammophon, are evidence of Tabea Zimmermann’s huge musical range. The recording of solo suites for viola by Max Reger and Johann Sebastian Bach published in 2009 by myrios classics has been extremely well received both within the press and by music lovers. Among many other commendations, the album has been awarded the Editor‘s Choice of the Gramophone Magazine and the Stern des Monats (Selection of the Month) of the German Fono Forum magazine. Tabea Zimmermann has received several awards for her artistic work, both in Germany and abroad, among them the Frankfurt Music Award, the Hessische Kulturpreis, the Rheingau Music Award and the International Prize of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. In 2006, she received the city of Hanau’s Paul Hindemith Prize for her extraordinary achievements in interpreting the composer’s work.

In the field of chamber music, Tabea Zimmermann places special emphasis on her cooperation with the Arcanto Quartett. In this ensemble she plays with violinists Antje Weithaas and Daniel Sepec as well as cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras. Many concerts and three CDs to date (published with harmonia mundi france) are ample proof of the fact that spontaneous vitality and well-wrought transparency are not necessarily at odds with each other
Tabea Zimmermann had her first viola lessons at the age of three and began playing the piano two years later. Her training with Ulrich Koch at the Freiburg University of Music was followed by a short, intensive study period with Sandor Végh at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She earned great respect with a successful series of competition entries, for instance first prizes at the Concours International in Geneva in 1982, Budapest in 1984 and the “Maurice Vieux” competition in Paris in 1983 where her prize consisted of a viola made by contemporary violin maker Etienne Vatelot. Since then, she has been playing on this instrument. From 1987 to 2000, she regularly gave concerts with David Shallon, the late father of her sons Yuval and Jonathan. Tabea Zimmermann has been a professor at the Saarbrücken University of Music and the Frankfurt University of Music – and has been a professor at the “Hanns Eisler” Academy of Music in Berlin since October 2002. She is married to the American conductor Steven Sloane; their daughter Maya was born in September 2003.

www.tabeazimmermann.de