Christoph Koncz

Christoph Koncz is a versatile violinist who enjoys an international career as a soloist, chamber musician and principal of the Vienna Philharmonic. He has also established himself internationally as a conductor. His conducting debut at the Mozartwoche Festival in Salzburg in 2013 was followed by appearances at the most important concert halls in the German-speaking world, including the Philharmonies in Berlin, Cologne and Munich, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, as well as at the Salzburg Festival.

Christoph Koncz has been chief conductor of the German Chamber Academy in Neuss am Rhein since 2019 and was also appointed principal guest conductor of Les Musiciens du Louvre. He regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world such as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Philharmonia Orchestra (London), the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. In the forthcoming season, he will make his debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and at the Prague National Theatre, the Zurich Opera and the Vienna State Opera.

Born in 1987 in Konstanz into an Austro-Hungarian family of musicians, Christoph Koncz received his first violin lessons at the age of four and began studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna two years later with Eugenia Polatschek. He went on to study the violin with Josef Hell, Igor Ozim and Boris Kuschnir in Vienna, Salzburg and Graz, as well as conducting with Mark Stringer in Vienna. Masterclasses with Daniel Barenboim and Daniel Harding further enriched his musical education. At the age of nine, he received worldwide acclaim for starring as child prodigy Kaspar Weiss in the Canadian feature film The Red Violin, which won an Academy Award for best original score.

Following his North American debut as a soloist at the age of 12 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Charles Dutoit, he collaborated with Neville Marriner, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Marc Minkowski. He has since performed throughout Europe, as well as in the Middle East, Asia, Australia and North and South America.

His chamber music partners include Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Julian Rachlin, Vilde Frang, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Antoine Tamestit, Clemens Hagen, Rudolf Buchbinder and Andreas Ottensamer. He appears regularly at the Verbier, Grafenegg, Lockenhaus, Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg Festivals. With his brother Stephan Koncz, a sought-after cellist and member of the Berlin Philharmonic, he won the European Music Prize for Youth.

His CD of Mozart’s complete violin concertos with Les Musiciens du Louvre on Sony Classical caused an international sensation in October 2020, as the first recording of the works made with the Mittenwald Baroque instrument that was once played by the composer himself.

Christoph Koncz plays the ‘ex Brüstlein’ Stradivarius of 1707, on loan from the Austrian National Bank.