Nils Mönkemeyer
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Full Biography
Artistic brilliance and innovative programming are the trademarks that have earned Nils Mönkemeyer a reputation as one of the world’s most successful violists, dramatically raising the profile of his instrument.
Under his exclusive contract with Sony Classical, Mönkemeyer has released numerous CDs over the past years, all of which have won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. His programmes run the gamut from rediscoveries and first recordings of original 18th-century viola literature, to contemporary repertoire and arrangements of his own. The most recently released CDs are recordings of Walton, Bruch and Pärt with the Bamberg Symphony under the direction of Markus Poschner, the chamber music album “Baroque” and the latest album where Nils Mönkemeyer together with the ensemble l´arte del mondo combines Paganini’s Sonata per la Grand‘ Viola e Orchestra with arrangements of cello and bassoon concertos by Antonio Vivaldi and
„L’arte del arco“ by Giuseppe Tartini. In spring 2023 a new album in collaboration with recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger will be released.

Nils Mönkemeyer works together with conductors such as Andrej Boreyko, Sylvain Cambreling, Constantinos Carydis, Nicholas Collon, Reinhard Goebel, Elias Grandy, Pietari Inkinen, Vladimir Jurowski, Joana Mallwitz, Andrew Manze, Cornelius Meister, Mark Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Markus Poschner, Kristiina Poska, Michael Sanderling, Clemens Schuldt, Markus Stenz, Mario Venzago or Simone Young, performing as a soloist with orchestras including Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Berne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra della svizzera italiana, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Rundfunk- Sinfonieorchester and Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Hamburg Philharmonic, Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, SWR Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Munich Chamber Orchestra or Berliner Barock Solisten.

In 2022/23 he will premiere Peter Ruzicka's "Depart" with Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and can be heard with Philharmonia Zurich under Simone Young, RSO Vienna under Duncan Ward, Sinfonieorchester Basel under Markus Poschner, Orquesta de Valencia under Dennis Russell Davies, Orchestre National de Lille under Jean-Claude Casadesus and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. The season will take Nils Mönkemeyer to venues such as Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Tonhalle Zurich and Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg, as well as to Milan, Turin, London and Valencia, and to international festivals such as MiTo Festival, Schubertiade, Heidelberger Frühling, Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern and Vevey Spring Classics. At the festival “Schwäbischer Frühling” Nils Mönkemeyer will be artist in residence in 2023.

Furthermore, he is pursuing a heartfelt wish as a musician to build bridges with music by making it accessible to disadvantaged people. To this end, Nils Mönkemeyer founded the chamber music festival “Klassik für Alle” in 2016, in collaboration with the charity Caritas Bonn.
 
Mönkemeyer has been a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich since 2011 - the same institution at which he himself studied with Hariolf Schlichtig. Previous tenures include a two-year professorship at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden, and an assistant professorship at the Reina Sofia College of Music in Madrid. In 2022/2023 he holds a visiting professorship at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki.
Nils Mönkemeyer plays a viola made by Philipp Augustin.

2022/2023

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