Antje Weithaas
Violin
Violin
Biography
Her imaginative and intelligent playing gains its freedom not by distancing itself from the orchestra, but by throwing itself unreservedly and fearlessly into musical relationships.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Igor Kallenberg, 21/12/2024
Awarded the OPUS Klassik 2025 as “Instrumentalist of the Year,” Antje Weithaas is one of the most distinguished musical personalities of our time. Her remarkable career began early: following numerous competition successes, she quickly established herself as a virtuoso young soloist alongside renowned orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the major German radio orchestras. But what makes her one of the “great violinists of our time” (Fono Forum) goes far beyond a brilliant start: it is the depth and sincerity of an artistically mature, consciously shaped career, supported by long-standing partnerships, interpretative maturity, artistic integrity, and a wealth of experience. With a commanding stage presence and a keen sense of nuance, she masterfully crafts deeply personal interpretations of great masterpieces — always unpretentious and in the service of the music, never seeking mere effect.
Antje Weithaas and pianist Dénes Várjon were awarded the 2024 Annual Prize of the German Record Critics’ Award for their complete recording of the sonatas for piano and violin by Ludwig van Beethoven. Released on CAvi-music and digitally distributed by Deutsche Grammophon, the recordings have already been presented in full-cycle concerts at the Casals Forum in Kronberg and in Budapest. In 2026, the complete Beethoven cycle will be performed at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.
With an impressive discography of thirty albums and a wide-ranging repertoire that spans the most important violin concertos from the Classical era to the modern day, Antje Weithaas is today considered one of — if not the — leading European authorities in the art of violin playing. She continues her acclaimed recording career with her latest studio album: a recording of Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto and Serenade for Strings with the Camerata Bern, recently released on the DG partner label CAvi-music — presumably the first recording of these works led from the violin by the soloist herself. This was preceded by the OPUS Klassik award-winning recording of Vasks’s Violin Concerto No. 2 In Evening Light, also with Camerata Bern. Antje Weithaas shares a long-standing artistic partnership with the ensemble, having served as its artistic director for nearly a decade. Today, she is a sought-after play-conduct leader with international chamber orchestras and recently toured South America as soloist with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra — a tour that was met with enthusiastic acclaim from both press and audiences.
Earlier recordings — such as the benchmark interpretation of the Beethoven and Berg violin concertos (with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Steven Sloane), Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and the orchestral version of his String Quartet No. 3 with Camerata Bern, the complete recordings of Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas, Max Bruch’s violin concertos, Schumann’s Violin Concerto, and Brahms’s Double Concerto (all with the NDR Radiophilharmonie under Andrew Manze and Hermann Bäumer), as well as works by Ysaÿe, Khachaturian, and Widmann — highlight the stylistic range and depth of her artistry. With the Arcanto Quartet, she recorded critically acclaimed albums for Harmonia Mundi featuring works by Brahms, Bartók, Ravel, Dutilleux, Debussy, Schubert, and Mozart.
Antje Weithaas began playing the violin at the age of four and a half and studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin with Werner Scholz. After early competition successes — including the Kreisler Competition in Graz, the Bach Competition in Leipzig, and the International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover — she took up a professorship at her alma mater in 2004. Since then, she has been internationally recognized as a violin pedagogue of the highest calibre. Together with Oliver Wille, she serves as artistic director of the Joseph Joachim Competition. Antje Weithaas plays a violin made by Peter Greiner in 2001.
To the album DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto & Serenade for Strings, release date 15 August 2025
> To the Album Pēteris Vasks Violin Concerto No. 2 “In Evening Light”
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