Micha Afkham, born in Freiburg im Breisgau, had his first violin lessons at the age of five. He switched to the viola at 16 and began studying with Hatto Beyerle at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, then continued his studies with Tabea Zimmermann at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin from 1999. Numerous master classes with musicians such as Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Wolfram Christ, Serge Collot and Herman Krebbers supplemented his artistic training. Micha Afkham also received grants from the Villa Musica in Mainz, the Richard Wagner Society of Hanover and the German Foundation of Musical Life in Hamburg. He became a scholar at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2003 and joined the viola section of the orchestra the following year. A prizewinner at several international competitions, he appears regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in Germany and abroad; he is a member of the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin and the Berlin Piano Quartet. Micha Afkham’s chamber music partners include Isabelle Faust, Tabea Zimmermann, Leonidas Kavakos, Emmanuel Pahud, Boris Pergamenschikow, András Schiff, Gidon Kremer and the Beaux Arts Trio.