Prof. Sophie Heinrich
Sophie Heinrich started playing the violin at the age of four and has been on stage ever since. Important teachers in her studies were, among others, Prof. Antje Weithaas (HfM "Hanns Eisler" Berlin) and Prof. Thomas Brandis, with whom she completed her postgraduate studies in the soloist class at the Lübeck University of Music with top marks and whose assistant she was until his death.
She received additional musical suggestions from Gidon Kremer, Midori, Reinhard Goebel, Lothar Strauss and the Artemis Quartet.
She has won several international competitions, such as the "Leopold Mozart Competition" in 1999, the "International Louise Henriette Competition" in 2002 and "Max Rostal Competition" in 2002.
In 2008 she won the renowned Possehl Music Prize of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck. In 2009 she attracted attention as the best German among the last six violinists in the semi-final of the ARD competition in the Herkulessaal in Munich. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has appeared at festivals in Germany and abroad, and has given concerts with orchestras such as the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Recordings for ORF, Deutschlandfunk, rbb, MDR, BR, 3 Sat and arte etc. document her symphonic, solo and chamber music skills. As a pedagogue, she was a lecturer for violin and chamber music at the “Musikhochschule Lübeck” for seven years and a dedicated teacher in Chile for children and young people, especially from very humble backgrounds. Today she teaches as a violin professor at the „State Conservatory Voralberg“ , as well as in master and chamber music courses. She received grants from the "Studienstiftung des Dt.Volkes", the "Dt.Stiftung Musikleben" and the "ZEIT-Stiftung", and was an active member of the Yehudi Menuhin Association "Live Music Now".
In 2012 she was hired as the first concert master of the "Komische Oper Berlin", where she was permanently engaged until 2019. In addition, she regularly appeared as first concertmaster in orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian State Opera, Dresdener Staatskapelle, Staatskapelle Berlin, etc. From June 2019 until 2023 she was the concert master of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
She plays on a Antonio Stradivari, "ex Rouse-Boughton", Cremona 1698, on loan from the "Oesterreichische Nationalbank" ; and on a new violin by David Bagué i Soler , fecit in Barcelona 2010.