Celebrated worldwide as one of today’s leading soloists, Arabella Steinbacher is known for her extraordinarily varied repertoire, comprising pieces from the classical and romantic eras, alongside modernist concerto works by Bartók, Berg, Britten, Glazunov, Gubaidulina, Hartmann, Hindemith, Korngold, Milhaud, Prokofiev, Schnittke, Shostakovich and Szymanowski. Arabella Steinbacher opens the 2023/24 season with the European premiere of Georges Lentz’s violin concerto “… to beam in distant heavens…” with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Gustavo Gimeno. The piece, which was written for her, was co-commissioned by the orchestra in Luxembourg and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, where it was first performed in April 2023. Shortly after, she will embark on a tour with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and their Chief Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, performing the violin concertos by Korngold and Brahms. Further highlights of this season include concerts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Münchner Symphoniker, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra Ankara and Copenhagen Philharmonic. Arabella Steinbacher will furthermore return to the Klosters Festival in Switzerland, where she appears with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, and to the Beethoven Festival Warsaw. Other orchestras she has collaborated with include the New York Philharmonic, Boston, Chicago and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Dresdner Philharmonie, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Arabella Steinbacher has also performed to great acclaim with the London Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National de France, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra as well as the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She has toured extensively with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken. Arabella Steinbacher works with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Jakub Hrůša, Pietari Inkinen, Marek Janowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Nodoka Okisawa, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Kirill Petrenko, John Storgårds and Kazuki Yamada. Her extensive discography impressively demonstrates her diverse repertoire. Her most recent recording with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester for Pentatone, with whom she records exclusively, juxtaposes works by Arvo Pärt and Johann Sebastian Bach. Previous recordings include her highly praised Mozart cycle with Festival Strings Lucerne and “The Four Seasons” of both Astor Piazzolla and Antonio Vivaldi, which was recorded with Arabella Steinbacher play-directing the Münchener Kammerorchester. The disc was released in summer 2020 and received rapturous reviews; the Guardian’s 5-star review ending simply with “what a player”. Born into a family of musicians, she has played the violin since the age of three and began her studies with Ana Chumachenco at the University of Music and Theatre Munich when she was eight. She cites the late Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis as a source of musical inspiration and guidance. Arabella currently plays the violins of Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1718, known as the “ex Benno Walter”, and the Guarneri del Gesù „Sainton“, Cremona, 1744, both generously provided by a private Swiss Foundation.
