Stanley Dodds

»The most beautiful thing in my profession are the concerts.«

His mother wanted to find a sensible occupation for her lively little boy, and so, because she knew a good violin teacher, she sent the then four-year-old Stanley to her for lessons. When he was 15 he attended the Musikgymnasium in Linz, and later he studied at the Lucerne Conservatory with Gunars Larsens, completing his training with Rainer Sonne in the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker before joining the orchestra in 1994. While still a student, Dodds played in the Lucerne Festival Strings, and was the orchestra’s alternate leader from 1996 to 1999. The multi-award-winning violinist has had extensive experience both as a soloist and as a chamber-music player. He is a member of the Breuninger Quartet and the Philharmonic Stradivari Soloists as well as a regular teacher for the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. As a conductor he has taken courses with Jorma Panula, and in 2014 was appointed principal conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.