Biography
Violin
Isabelle Faust
After winning the Leopold Mozart Competition and Paganini Competition at a very young age, Isabelle Faust soon began to perform regularly with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, NHK Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Les Siècles, and Baroque Orchestra Freiburg. In addition to standard concerto repertoire, she has also performed Schubert’s Octet with historical instruments, Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat with Dominique Horwitz, and Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments with Anna Prohaskal; and given world premieres by Péter Eötvös, Brett Dean, Ondřej Adámek, and Rune Glerup. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in October 2014.
Highlights this season include performances with the Boston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony, London Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. She was the 2024 artist in residence at Beethovenfest Bonn.
Faust shares a longstanding chamber music partnership with the pianist Alexander Melnikov, as well as in trios with Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras. Faust and Melnikov have released recordings of sonatas for piano and violin by Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, among others. Her chamber collaborations include historical interpretations of Schubert’s Cello Quintet and String Quartet No. 15 in G major with Antoine Tamestit, Anne Katharina Schreiber, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Christian Poltéra.
Faust’s recordings have been praised by critics and awarded the Diapason d’Or, Gramophone Award, Choc de l’année, and other prizes. She was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Opus Klassik in 2024. Recent recordings include Britten’s Violin Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, works for violin and orchestra by Pietro Locatelli with Il Giardino Armonico, and works for solo violin by Biber, Matteis, Pisendel, Vilsmayr, and Guillemain. She has also recorded Bach’s sonatas and partitas, as well as violin concertos by Beethoven and Berg.
Highlights this season include performances with the Boston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony, London Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. She was the 2024 artist in residence at Beethovenfest Bonn.
Faust shares a longstanding chamber music partnership with the pianist Alexander Melnikov, as well as in trios with Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras. Faust and Melnikov have released recordings of sonatas for piano and violin by Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms, among others. Her chamber collaborations include historical interpretations of Schubert’s Cello Quintet and String Quartet No. 15 in G major with Antoine Tamestit, Anne Katharina Schreiber, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Christian Poltéra.
Faust’s recordings have been praised by critics and awarded the Diapason d’Or, Gramophone Award, Choc de l’année, and other prizes. She was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Opus Klassik in 2024. Recent recordings include Britten’s Violin Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, works for violin and orchestra by Pietro Locatelli with Il Giardino Armonico, and works for solo violin by Biber, Matteis, Pisendel, Vilsmayr, and Guillemain. She has also recorded Bach’s sonatas and partitas, as well as violin concertos by Beethoven and Berg.
