Gernot Winischhofer

VIOLIN

Gernot Winischhofer was born in Vienna, where he completed his musical and technical education and graduated with honors. A scholarship brought him to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he studied under Valery Klimov in the tradition of David Oistrakh and graduated with distinction. He further refined his skills in masterclasses with Max Rostal, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Sándor Végh, Gidon Kremer, Andre Gertler, and Alexander Arenkov, winning several national and international competition prizes.

As a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed with Josef Suk, Igor Oistrakh, Pavel Gililov, Tanja Grindenko, Jörg Demus, Paul Badura Skoda, Hans Kann, and many others at festivals in Athens, Budapest, Echternach, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ossiach, New York (Carnegie Hall), Prague, Salzburg, Vienna, and worldwide. He has appeared with orchestras such as the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Hermitage Symphony Orchestra in St. Petersburg, orchestras in Nuremberg, Slovakia, the Prague Philharmonic, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Camerata St. Petersburg, the Lithuanian and Vienna Chamber Orchestras, and the Athens Philharmonic in the Megaron, under conductors including Christian Thielemann, Saulius Sondeckis, Sergiu Comissiona, and others.

Founder of the Trio di Vienna, Oistrach Ensemble, and Camerata Vienna, he was a professor at the Vienna State Conservatory from 1992 to 2014 and artistic director of the East-West Music Festival since 1987. He has recorded for radio, television, and CD, served on competition juries, and performs on the famous Paolo Maggini & Gasparo da Salo violin, known as the “Ole Bull” (1600).