Christoph Koncz

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Highly versatile 33-year-old violinist Christoph Koncz enjoys a wide-ranging international career as a soloist, conductor, chamber musician and principal violinist of the Vienna Philharmonic.

At the age of just nine, he received worldwide acclaim for starring as child prodigy Kaspar Weiss in the Canadian feature lm The Red Violin, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Score. 

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Born 1987 in Konstanz into an Austrian-Hungarian family of musicians and raised in Vienna, Christoph Koncz received his rst violin lesson at the age of four and entered the Vienna University of Music only two years later, studying with Eugenia Polatschek. He went on to study violin with Josef Hell, Igor Ozim and Boris Kuschnir at the Music Universities of Vienna, Salzburg and Graz as well as conducting with Mark Stringer in Vienna. Master classes with Daniel Barenboim and Daniel Harding further enriched his musical education. 

 

Christoph Koncz made his North American debut as a violin soloist at age twelve with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit, leading to collaborations with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Marc Minkowski. Much in demand as a chamber musician, his musical partners include Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, Renaud Capuçon, Antoine Tamestit, Kim Kashkashian, Gautier Capuçon, Andreas Ottensamer and Rudolf Buchbinder. His concert engagements have taken him to numerous countries across Europe and to the Middle East, Asia, Australia as well as North and South America. 

 

In 2008, at the age of twenty, Christoph Koncz was appointed principal second violin of the Vienna Philharmonic, a position he has held since. 

 

Christoph Koncz is rapidly establishing himself internationally as a conductor. His conducting debut at the 2013 Salzburg Mozartwoche was followed by concerts at such prestigious venues as the Berlin, Cologne and Munich Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus and KKL Lucerne as well as at the Salzburg Festival. In 2017, Christoph Koncz made his US conducting debut with the Memphis Symphony and he also conducted the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in a masterclass with David Zinman. He made his subscription debut at the Cologne Philharmonie with Concerto Köln in June 2018. During the ongoing season Christoph Koncz will return to the Berlin Philharmonie and take the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal on tour. Furthermore, he has recently been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the renowned French period instrument ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre. Christoph Koncz is Chief Conductor Designate of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Neuss am Rhein, beginning his tenure next season. 

 

Christoph Koncz plays a violin by Antonio Stradivari on generous loan by the National Bank of Austria.