Konstantin Krimmel, of German-Romanian descent, received his first musical training with the St. Georgs Chorknaben in Ulm. At the age of 21, he began studying voice with Prof. Teru Yoshihara, graduating with honors in 2020. Since then, he has been mentored by Tobias Truniger in Munich. Even during his studies, the artist developed a special love for the concert and song repertoire, which he has steadily expanded. Winning numerous competitions has significantly advanced his career. From 2021 to 2023, Konstantin Krimmel was supported as a BBC New Generation Artist. In 2023, he was named Best Young Artist by the “Oper! Awards“ and “Best Young Singer“ by Opernwelt, and in 2024 he won the Opus Klassik award in the category Singer of the Year.
Since fall 2021, Konstantin Krimmel has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera ensemble, where he can be heard in the central roles of his repertoire. His roles there include Zoroastro (Orlando), Roberto/Nardo (La finta giardiniera), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Yoshio in Hanjo and Matthias in Thomas, both by Georg Friedrich Haas, Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Don Giovanni. In 2024, he also sang Olivier (Capriccio) under the baton of Christian Thielemann at the Salzburg Festival.
He has worked with renowned orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, and the RIAS Chamber Choir. His musical partners include Vladimir Jurowski, Kent Nagano, Stefano Montanari, Sebastian Weigle, Justin Doyle, Jakub Hrůša, Philippe Herreweghe, Thomas Hengelbrock, and Sir Simon Rattle.
As already mentioned, song has a special significance for Konstantin Krimmel. Recital evenings have already taken him to the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, concert halls in Berlin and Vienna, the Frankfurt Opera, the Heidelberg Spring Festival, the Schubertiada de Vilabertran, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Madrid, London (Wigmore Hall), New York (Armory Hall and, in December 2025, 92nd Street), the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Oxford Lied Festival.
The 2025/26 season has a lot of exciting projects lined up: in Hamburg, he'll be doing the orchestral version of Ralph Vaughan-Williams' Songs of Travel with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under Andris Poga, and in Salzburg, Haydn's Schöpfung with the Berlin Philharmonic under Daniel Harding. He will tour with Richard Strauss' songs together with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Christian Thielemann (Strauss’ Songs) from Berlin to Munich and Vienna, and he will perform Bach's St. John Passion with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra under Peter Whelan in Barcelona, London, and Budapest. At the Bavarian State Opera, he will appear as Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Don Giovanni, and in the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro. He will also appear as Figaro in a new production at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona. Nearly 30 recitals will take him to Vienna, Amsterdam, Oxford, Madrid, Basel, the Schubertiade Hohenems/Schwarzenberg, Munich, and New York, where he will perform the three Schubert cycles.
His album “Mythos“, recorded with Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano), was recently released on the Alpha label. His recording of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin with Daniel Heide (piano), also released on Alpha in 2023, was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize. In spring 2023, the album “Silent Songs” (Silvestrov) was released, which he recorded together with Hélène Grimaud for Deutsche Grammophon. The second album with Hélène Grimaud, entitled “For Clara” (songs by Johannes Brahms and piano works by Robert Schumann), was also released by Deutsche Grammophon in autumn 2023. Previously, his song CD "Franz Liszt - Der du vom Himmel bist“ with Daniel Heide and, in autumn 2022, the CD entitled ”Zauberoper in Wien" (arias by Gluck, Wranitzky, Schack, Mozart, Haydn, and von Winter) accompanied by the Hofkapelle München under Rüdiger Lotter on the Alpha label.
Tabea Zimmermann is a musician of extraordinary versatility. As an internationally soughtafter soloist, chamber musician, and educator, she profoundly shapes the musical world far beyond the concert stage. At the heart of her work lies the viola—both as an expression of artistic excellence and personal conviction.
Born in southern Baden, she made her debut at the Berlin Philharmonie at just eleven years old. Following significant competition successes in Geneva, Paris, and Budapest, she became Germany’s youngest professor at the age of 21. She remains deeply committed to teaching, currently holding positions at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and the Kronberg Academy.
A special focus of her artistic work is contemporary music. Numerous composers—including György Ligeti, Heinz Holliger, Wolfgang Rihm, Enno Poppe, and Michael Jarrell—have dedicated works to her or premiered pieces with her. For Zimmermann, engaging with new music is closely linked to evolving classical interpretive approaches. Chamber music is as central to her artistry as the “play & lead” principle, which sees her directing orchestral projects from within the ensemble. Recent collaborations in this spirit include performances with Ensemble Resonanz, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the German National Youth Orchestra. A new project with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra is set to follow in spring 2026.
Around the same time, she embarks on an extensive recital tour across North America with pianist Javier Perianes, with stops in Washington, New York, Québec, Montreal, and Princeton. She also maintains a long-standing musical partnership with pianist Thomas Hoppe, with many future concerts already planned. In May and June 2026, she joins the Belcea Quartet once again for a concert tour across Germany.
Artistic collaboration on equal footing is a core value she lives by—within music and beyond. As artist-in-residence, she has appeared with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In summer 2025, she is one of the Artistes Étoiles at the Lucerne Festival, where she will perform chamber music, Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Maxim Emelyanychev, and the Swiss premiere of Dieter Ammann’s (1962) No templates for viola and orchestra. She will then continue her artistic partnership with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Highlights of the 2025/26 season also include the world premiere of a new work by Georges Aperghis at the Donaueschingen Festival (with EXAUDI), Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and concerts with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under Marek Janowski, and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Johanna Mallwitz.
As president of the Swiss Hindemith Foundation and chair of the board of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Tabea Zimmermann actively shapes cultural policy processes.
Through the David Shallon Foundation, which she founded, she supports international and socially relevant music projects.
For her broad-ranging engagement, she has received numerous honors, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and honorary membership in the German Music Council.
Tabea Zimmermann stands out like few other musicians for her artistic integrity, intellectual independence, and music born of deep personal conviction.
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.
Highlights in 2025 and 2026 include appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris all conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk, a Paris residency with both the Orchestre National and Orchestre Philharmonique de France with Cristian Măcelaru and Alain Altinoglu, Staatskapelle Dresden and Daniele Gatti, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Rafael Payare, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Alain Altinoglu, Wiener Symphoniker and Robert Trevino, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Alan Gilbert, Filarmonica della Scala and Daniele Gatti, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Eun Sun Kim, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Anja Bihlmaier, as well as performances in China with the orchestras in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong with Long Yu.
Together with pianist Dmytro Choni he gives recitals in, among others, Paris, London, Amsterdam and Vienna.
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 include the Stravinsky violin concerto, coupled with Martinů’s Suite concertante and Bartók’s Rhapsodies nos. 1 and 2 with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša (BIS), the complete sonatas and partitas by J.S. Bach (BIS) and the complete sonatas for piano and violin by Beethoven with Martin Helmchen (BIS).
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 for well over a decade. 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.
