Konstantin Krimmel, of German-Romanian descent, received his first musical training as a member of the St. Georgs Chorknaben in Ulm. At the age of 21, he began his vocal studies with Prof. Teru Yoshihara, graduating with distinction in 2020. Since then, he has been coached and mentored by Tobias Truniger in Munich. During his studies, the artist developed a particular affinity for the concert and song repertoire, which he has continued to expand ever since. Winning numerous competitions played a decisive role in advancing his career. From 2021 to 2023, Konstantin Krimmel was supported as a BBC New Generation Artist. In 2023, he was named Young Artist of the Year at the Oper! Awards and received the Opernwelt award for Young Singer of the Year. In 2024, he was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK in the category Singer of the Year.
Since autumn 2021, Konstantin Krimmel has been a member of the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera, where he performs many of the key roles in his repertoire. His roles there include Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Dandini in La Cenerentola, Zoroastro in Orlando, Roberto/Nardo in La finta giardiniera, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, as well as Yoshio in Hanjo and Matthias in Thomas, both by Georg Friedrich Haas. In summer 2024, he sang the role of Olivier in Capriccio under the baton of Christian Thielemann at the Salzburg Festival. In February 2027, he will make his debut as Papageno at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.
In the concert field, Konstantin Krimmel has already worked with renowned ensembles including the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony and the RIAS Chamber Choir. His musical collaborators have included Vladimir Jurowski, Kent Nagano, Stefano Montanari, Sebastian Weigle, Justin Doyle, Jakub Hrůša, Philippe Herreweghe, Thomas Hengelbrock, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, Kazuki Yamada, Andris Poga and Daniel Harding.
Art song is a central focus of Konstantin Krimmel’s artistic work. His song recitals have taken him to venues and festivals including the Cologne Philharmonie, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Frankfurt Opera, the Heidelberg Spring Festival, the Schubertiada de Vilabertran and the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, as well as to Madrid, London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Armory Hall and 92nd Street, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Oxford Song Festival and, most recently, the Salzburg Festival.
The 2026/27 season offers an exciting cross-section of varied repertoire. Highlights include Korngold’s Die tote Stadtin concert with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under Oksana Lyniv in Amsterdam; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Sir Simon Rattle in Munich and Passau; Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider in Chicago; Handel’s Messiah with the WDR Symphony Orchestra and Jonathan Cohen in Cologne; Bach’s St Matthew Passion on tour to, among other cities, Palma, Murcia, Berlin and Essen with the RIAS Chamber Choir and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin under Justin Doyle; Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España under David Afkham in Madrid; and Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at the Rheingau Music Festival.
In addition, almost 30 song recitals will take him to some of the world’s leading centres for art song, including the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Oxford Song Festival, Bourgie Hall in Montreal, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, the Hindsgavl Festival, the Munich Opera Festival, the Schubertiade Hohenems/Schwarzenberg, the Schubertiada Vilabertran and Wigmore Hall in London.
In August 2026, Konstantin Krimmel’s new album Melancholie, recorded with pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz, was released on the Alpha label. The album brings together songs by Johannes Brahms and Eusebius Mandyczewski, shaped by their shared love of Schubert, their fascination with folk song and a profound sense of melancholy. For Krimmel, the album marks a premiere: he sings in Romanian for the first time.
His other recordings include the previously released album Mythos, also with Ammiel Bushakevitz, which received the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik; Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with Daniel Heide, also awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik; Silent Songs and For Clara, both with Hélène Grimaud; Franz Liszt – Der du vom Himmel bist with Daniel Heide; and Zauberoper in Wien with the Hofkapelle München under Rüdiger Lotter.
Tabea Zimmermann is a musician of extraordinary versatility. As an internationally sought-after soloist, chamber musician and educator, she has made a profound impact on musical life far beyond the concert stage. At the heart of her artistic work is the viola – both as an instrument of exceptional expressive potential and as a reflection of her deeply held artistic convictions.
A native of southern Baden, Tabea Zimmermann made her debut at the Berliner Philharmonie at the age of eleven. Major competition successes in Geneva, Paris and Budapest followed, and at just 21 she was appointed Germany’s youngest-ever professor. Teaching has remained an integral part of her work ever since; she currently teaches at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt and at the Kronberg Academy.
Contemporary music has always been a particular focus of her artistic work. Numerous works by composers including György Ligeti, Heinz Holliger, Wolfgang Rihm, Enno Poppe and Michael Jarrell have been dedicated to her or premiered by her. For Tabea Zimmermann, engaging with new music is inseparable from the continued evolution of classical approaches to interpretation. Chamber music is as central to her work as the “Play & Lead” principle, in which she leads orchestral projects from within the ensemble itself. In recent years, she has pursued this approach as Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Bundesjugendorchester and in numerous projects with Ensemble Resonanz.
This multifaceted artistic outlook is once again reflected in her 2026/27 season, in which Tabea Zimmermann will continue to set significant artistic benchmarks on stages around the world. The season opens with a highlight of contemporary music at the Musica Festival in Strasbourg, where she performs Georges Aperghis’ Tell Tales together with the vocal ensemble EXAUDI. Further highlights include Hector Berlioz’s Harold en Italie at the Wiener Musikverein with the RSO Wien under Ingo Metzmacher, as well as a trio tour of Austria and Switzerland with her long-standing chamber music partners Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras. She begins 2027 with performances in Stuttgart and Freiburg, appearing with the SWR Symphonieorchester under François-Xavier Roth in York Höller’s Viola Concerto.
Spain is a particular geographical focus of the season. In Madrid, Tabea Zimmermann performs Paul Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España under Kristiina Poska, followed by Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla under Lucas Macías. A major European trio tour with Jean-Guihen Queyras and Javier Perianes takes her to leading concert halls in Alicante, Madrid and Barcelona, followed by a duo recital tour of Italy with Javier Perianes, with performances in Turin, Siena, Rome and Florence.
International chamber music engagements and guest appearances round out the season. Highlights include a duo recital with Antoine Tamestit at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, a chamber music evening with Kirill Gerstein at the Wiener Musikverein and William Walton’s Viola Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Andris Poga. With the Kammerakademie Potsdam, she performs Bohuslav Martinů’s Rhapsody-Concerto. The season culminates in the world premiere of a new work by Milica Djordjević as part of the Bayerischer Rundfunk’s musica viva series at the Herkulessaal, with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks conducted by Brad Lubman.
Tabea Zimmermann’s outstanding contribution to music has been recognised with numerous honours, including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2020, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and honorary membership of the Deutscher Musikrat. Few musicians embody artistic integrity, intellectual independence and a profound commitment to music with as much conviction as Tabea Zimmermann.
Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely recognised as one of the foremost violinists of his generation, praised for his selfless musicality, his technical brilliance and keen intelligence. For more than four decades he has been working with the world’s major orchestras and renowned conductors. His many concert engagements take him to all important concert venues and international music festivals in Europe, the United States, Asia, South America and Australia.
During the 2026/27 season Mr. Zimmermann will be adding William Walton’s Violin Concerto to his already extensive and varied repertoire. Performances are scheduled with, among others, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert, Orquesta Nacional de España and David Afkham, Orchestre National de Lyon and Philippe Jordan and the KBS Symphony Orchestra and Michael Sanderling. He also returns to Hindemith’s Violin Concerto, which he will perform with, among others, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Vladimir Jurowski, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Paavo Järvi, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Elim Chan, NDR Radiophilharmonie and Stanislav Kochanovsky, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck, Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Gustavo Gimeno, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Elias Grandy and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Martin Rajna.
Together with pianist Dmytro Choni he will be giving recitals in various cities in Europe with a Schubert, Webern, Schoenberg programme.
Over the years Mr. Zimmermann has built up an impressive discography for BIS Records, Warner Classics, Sony Classical, hänssler CLASSIC, Ondine, Decca, Teldec Classics and ECM Records. He has recorded virtually all major concerto repertoire, ranging from Bach to Ligeti, as well as recital repertoire. Many of these highly acclaimed recordings have received prestigious awards and prizes worldwide.
Most recent releases on BIS Records include a highly praised recording of Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner, as well as a first duo album with Dmytro Choni with works by Bartók and Szymanowski. Previous releases include recordings of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, coupled with Martinů’s Suite concertante and Bartók’s Rhapsodies nos. 1 and 2 with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša, the complete Sonatas and Partitas by J.S. Bach and the complete Sonatas for piano and violin by Beethoven with Martin Helmchen.
He received numerous special prizes and honours, among which the Premio del Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena(1990), the Rheinischer Kulturpreis (1994), the Musikpreis of the city of Duisburg (2002), the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2008) and the Paul-Hindemith-Preis der Stadt Hanau (2010).
In 2010 he founded the Trio Zimmermann with viola player Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra; the trio performed in all major music centres and festivals in Europe. Their last concert took place in 2019. BIS Records released award-winning CD recordings of works for string trio by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg and Hindemith.
Mr. Zimmermann has given world premieres of Magnus Lindberg’s violin concerto no. 2, Matthias Pintscher’s violin concerto en sourdine, Brett Dean’s violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing and of Augusta Read Thomas’ violin concerto no. 3 Juggler in Paradise.
Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, he started playing the violin when he was 5 years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers.
Frank Peter Zimmermann plays on the 1711 Antonio Stradivari violin Lady Inchiquin, which is kindly provided by the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Kunst im Landesbesitz.
