(photo: Tam Photography)
Born in Judenburg (Austria)
Member since 2020-03-15
Awards:
2nd Prize and Bach Prize at the Montreal International Violin Competition (2019), 2nd Prize at the International Max Rostal Competition (2019), 1st Prize at the Ysaye International Violin Competition in Liège (2018), Deutscher Musikwettbewerb (2015), Scholarship, 2nd Prize and Chamber Music Prize at the Competition “Pacem in Terris” in Bayreuth (2014)
Official Website:
“My first impression of this orchestra was that everyone made music with incredible passion! You feel like you're in a huge chamber music group in which each musician is consciously aware of what the others are playing. There is a lot of non-verbal communication! For me as a violinist, one of the greatest challenges is to fit perfectly into the musical concept on the one hand, while at the same time contributing an independent and personal voice. Because it is only through individual effort that music gains its power.”
She did not even know what a violin looked like, but its song-like sound, which she listened to on recordings, fascinated Johanna Pichlmair so much that she was determined to learn the instrument. At the age of six, the native Austrian became a pupil of Alexandra Rappitsch, who taught her until the beginning of her music studies and had a decisive influence on her.
Johanna Pichlmair completed her first year of study at the Mozarteum University Salzburg under Igor Ozim. In 2009 she moved to Berlin, where she first studied at the Academy of Music “Hanns Eisler” under Antje Weithaas and Feng Ning, and later at the University of the Arts under Nora Chastain. From 2014 to 2016, she was a scholarship holder of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Karajan Academy. She also attended master classes held by Pinchas Zukerman, Lewis Kaplan and Eberhard Feltz, among others.
The violinist gained her first orchestral experience in various chamber ensembles as a teenager. In the course of time she also won over 20 prizes as a soloist at national and international competitions. In 2017, she received her first position with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Since March 2020, she has been a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s first violin section.
As a soloist, she has performed with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Münchener Rundfunkorchester, the Nürnberger Symphoniker, the Grazer Philharmoniker and the Pforzheimer Kammerochester. She has also performed as a chamber musician at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Ludwigsburg Festival and the Heidelberg Spring Music Festival. In her spare time she loves latin and ballroom dancing and does Pilates.
