The Austrian cellist Valerie Fritz is currently studying at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Clemens Hagen. She explores her instrument using both electronics and gut strings, and performs both contemporary and classical music. She approaches compositions, and her audiences, with a mixture of open-mindedness and a sense for detail. Through her broad repertory she demonstrates – often in her own concert programmes and in new performance formats – how creative thinking can benefit all styles of music. Valerie Fritz appears as a soloist at festivals such as the TRANSIENT Impulsfestival, the Schumannfest at the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and the Mascarade Festivalino in Venice. She develops programmes directly with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Thomas Larcher and Arturo Fuentes. She is also part of the NAMES ensemble and plays regularly with Camerata Salzburg and with œnm: œsterreichisches ensemble fuer neue music. In addition, she has performed with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Academy, and taken part in the Darmstadt Summer Course, and the International Ensemble Modern Academy.
Valerie Fritz is a winner of the Berlin Prize for Young Artists and the Concorso Mainardi, and holds a scholarship from the Académie Musicale Philippe Jaroussky in Paris. As director of the International Society for Contemporary Music – Tyrol section she curates the concert series noiz//elektrorauschen. Her fascination with current sounds has led her to give workshops for children and young people in schools and universities.
