Guy Braunstein

The Israeli violinist Guy Braunstein, who was born in 1971 in Tel Aviv, was seven when he learned to play the violin. He later studied with Chaim Taub, the concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and with Glenn Dicterow and Pinchas Zukerman in New York. He performed as the soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in 1992 with the Berlin Philharmonic, which engaged him as first concertmaster in the fall of 2000. He held this position until the summer of 2013; since then he has focused on his solo career. Braunstein has performed with many renowned orchestras, including the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the Filarmonica della Scala, and the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Copenhagen and of Frankfurt am Main. In the 2014-15 season he appeared with the BBC Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, and the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra; he also collaborated on the project “Violins of Hope” at the Philharmonie in Berlin marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Au-schwitz: this was a concert using instruments by Holocaust victims and survivors. As a chamber musician Braunstein has performed with such musicians as the violinist Isaac Stern and the pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Maurizio Pollini, András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida. The composer Rolf Riehm wrote the violin concerto Shifting for him. From 2003 to 2007 Braunstein taught at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Since 2006 he has served as Artistic Director of the Rolandseck Festival in the vicinity of Bonn, where he presents such colleagues as the flutist Emmanuel Pahud, the pianist Hélène Grimaud, the violist Amihai Grosz, and the oboist François Leleux. Guy Braunstein plays a Francesco Ruggeri violin built in 1679.

From 2001 to 2013 Guy Braunstein was a regular LUCERNE FESTIVAL guest as the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic.

August 2015