Violinist Florian Donderer, praised for playing with “exceptional beauty, breathtaking technique and shocking intensity” is one of the most interesting musicians of his generation.
He is a versatile musician, highly valued as chamber musician, soloist, concertmaster and conductor, collaborating with distinguished musicians such as Christian Tetzlaff, Antje Weithaas, Viktoria Mullova, Tanja Tetzlaff, Julian Steckel, Kiveli Dörken, Alexander Lonquich, Sharon Kam, Matthias Görne and Paavo Järvi.
Florian Donderer is frequent guest at major festivals such as Bergen Festspielen, Beethovenfest Bonn, Festwochen Berlin, Schwetzinger Festspiele and is core member at “Spannungen”, one of Germany’s most prominent music festivals, founded by Pianist Lars Vogt. Florian Donderer is artistic director of “Rottweil Musikfestival” one of Germany’s longest standing chamber music festivals. With his wife, Tanja Tetzlaff he is curating a chamber music series at Sendesaal Bremen.
He is first violin of Signum Quartet, one of the most adventurous and outstanding string quartets of today. Concerts with Signum Quartet have taken him to international podia from Berlin‘s Boulez-Saal and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg to London’s Wigmore Hall and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Signum Quartet‘s 2023 debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall has been hailed by the press as “one of the highlights of the season.”
Florian Donderer is especially renowned as an artistic leader, directing orchestras from the concertmaster’s desk. He was longstanding concertmaster of one of the worlds leading chamber orchestras, “The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen”, and was instrumental in defining what has become one of the orchestra’s hallmarks – playing without a conductor. Top Orchestras such as Irish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Estonian National Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Lapland Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Bern invite him as director and soloist.
He made his debut as conductor with Ensemble Oriol and Christiane Oelze at Berlin Philharmonic Hall, followed by a CD recording with Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Tanja Tetzlaff. He has conducted among others the Kammerakademie Neuss, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim and Festival Strings Lucerne.
He was professor at Hanzehoogschool Groningen and regularly gives masterclasses teaching violin, chamber music and orchestra playing, for example at Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, Zurich University of the Arts, Royal Academy of Music, Dublin, Basel Academy of Music, Latvian Academy of Music and Estonian Academy of Music.
Highlights of the upcoming seasons 2024/25 include concerts as soloist and director with the Estonian National Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra. He will have his first appearance at Ilumona Festival in Brasil as well as at Leif Ove Andsnes’ Rosendahl Chamber Music Festival.
He plays a violin built by German violinmaker Peter Greiner in 2003 and bows by Nico Plog from Antwerp.
