Geiger Thomas Zehetmair
As a soloist, conductor and member of the renowned Zehetmair Quartet, the versatile violinist is a regular guest at music centres around the world. The Styriarte owes its first note to the winner of the German Record Critics' Prize: Thomas Zehetmaier opened the festival in 1985 with Bach's Partita in d Minor .
About the artist
great violinist and conductor
Thomas Zehetmair enjoys international acclaim as a violinist, conductor and founding member of Zehetmair Quartet. Thomas received much inspiration from his work as a soloist with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Frans Brüggen, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle and Paavo Järvi.
As a conductor, he has appeared with orchestras including London Philharmonic, The Hallé, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Eighteenth-Century, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Hamburger Philharmoniker, Mozarteum Orchester and Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León.
He was Chief Conductor of Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Artistic Partner of St. Paul’s Chamber Orchestra and Music Director of Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Thomas has an extensive and varied discography, including Paganini's Caprices, which won a Midem Classic Award. He received Gramophone Awards for his rendition of the Elgar Concerto with Sir Mark Elder and Szymanowski Concertos with Sir Simon Rattle. A Gramophone Award of the Year and four other international prizes were presented to the Zehetmair Quartet for their recording of Schumann Quartets.
He received an Opus Klassik Award 2020 for his disc of Bach's Six Solo Sonatas and Partitas, recorded with Baroque violin, which was also selected by The New York Times as one of “The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2019” and Die Zeit as one of their six favourite recordings of 2019.
