Friederike Starkloff is considered one of the most expressive musicians of her generation thanks to her profound, multifaceted and virtuoso violin playing. Born in Chemnitz in 1990, she received violin lessons from Wolfgang Marschner and Ariane Mathäus at the Pflüger Foundation in Freiburg at the age of five. This was followed by musical training with Rainer Kussmaul in Freiburg and Antje Weithaas at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, where she was Weithaas's assistant from 2017 to 2022.
Friederike Starkloff has won numerous internationally renowned competitions, including the 3rd International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists in 2001 at the age of 11, where she received first prize, [comma] and a special prize for the best young participant at the 10th International Ludwig Spohr Violin Competition in Freiburg in 2006. She is also a prize winner of the 7th International Leopold Mozart Violin Competition in Augsburg, where she was awarded second place in 2009. This laid the foundation for her debut CD of Mozart violin sonatas with José Gallardo.
In 2010, she won third prize at the VII International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, in 2014 third prize (Jacques Thibaud Grand Prize) at the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris, and in 2015 third prize at the Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki. Her second CD recording of violin duets with works by Eugène Ysaÿe and Wolfgang Marschner was made in 2017 with violinist Myvanwy Ella Penny as her duo partner.
At the age of 24, Friederike Starkloff became the youngest concertmaster of a radio orchestra in Germany when she was appointed principal concertmaster of the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover. Since then, she has gained a wealth of artistic experience, which she will continue to build on in the 23/24 season [this makes no sense as 23/24 was 2 years ago] in her position as principal concertmaster of the Basel Symphony Orchestra. She is also in demand as a soloist and is a welcome chamber musician, appearing in numerous concerts and productions with Markus Becker, Jan Vogler, Leonid Gorokhov, Daniel Schnyder and Gerrit Zitterbart, among others.
She plays a violin by Meike Finckh from 2021 and a violin by Julia Maria Pasch from 2014.
Foto: Zuzanna Specjal