Frank Peter Zimmermann

Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely recognised as one of the foremost violinists of his generation, praised for his selfless musicality, his technical brilliance and keen intelligence. For more than four decades he has been working with the world’s major orchestras and renowned conductors. His many concert engagements take him to all important concert venues and international music festivals in Europe, the United States, Asia, South America and Australia.

During the 2026/27 season Mr. Zimmermann will be adding William Walton’s Violin Concerto to his already extensive and varied repertoire. Performances are scheduled with, among others, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert, Orquesta Nacional de Espaňa and David Afkham, Orchestre National de Lyon and Philippe Jordan and the KBS Symphony Orchestra and Michael Sanderling. He also returns to Hindemith’s Violin Concerto, which he will perform with, among others, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Vladimir Jurowski, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Paavo Järvi, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Elim Chan, NDR Radiophilharmonie and Stanislav Kochanovsky, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck, Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Gustavo Gimeno, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Elias Grandy and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Martin Rajna.

Together with pianist Dmytro Choni he will be giving recitals in various cities in Europe with a Schubert, Webern, Schoenberg programme.

Over the years Mr. Zimmermann has built up an impressive discography for BIS Records, Warner Classics, Sony Classical, hänssler CLASSIC, Ondine, Decca, Teldec Classics and ECM Records. He has recorded virtually all major concerto repertoire, ranging from Bach to Ligeti, as well as recital repertoire. Many of these highly acclaimed recordings have received prestigious awards and prizes worldwide. 

Most recent releases on BIS Records include a highly praised recording of Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner, as well as a first duo album with Dmytro Choni with works by Bartók and Szymanowski. Previous releases include recordings of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, coupled with Martinů’s Suite concertante and Bartók’s Rhapsodies nos. 1 and 2 with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša, the complete Sonatas and Partitas by J.S. Bach and the complete Sonatas for piano and violin by Beethoven with Martin Helmchen.

He received numerous special prizes and honours, among which the “Premio del Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena” (1990), the “Rheinischer Kulturpreis” (1994), the “Musikpreis” of the city of Duisburg (2002), the “Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (2008) and the “Paul-Hindemith-Preis der Stadt Hanau” (2010). 

In 2010 he founded the Trio Zimmermann with viola player Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra; the trio performed in all major music centres and festivals in Europe. Their last concert took place in 2019. BIS Records released award-winning CD recordings of works for string trio by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg and Hindemith.

Mr. Zimmermann has given world premieres of Magnus Lindberg’s violin concerto no. 2, Matthias Pintscher’s violin concerto “en sourdine”, Brett Dean’s violin concerto “The Lost Art of Letter Writing” and of Augusta Read Thomas’ violin concerto no. 3 “Juggler in Paradise”.

Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, he started playing the violin when he was 5 years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers.

Frank Peter Zimmermann plays on the 1711 Antonio Stradivari violin “Lady Inchiquin”, which is kindly provided by the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, “Kunst im Landesbesitz”.