Guy Braunstein - Violinist & Conductor

BIOGRAPHY 2023/2024

“I always remain who I am. Only the music decides my meaning. - Guy Braunstein

A unique blend of virtuosity, restraint and creativity – this is what violinist, conductor and composer Guy Braunstein stands for. Like few others, he not only knows how to convince audiences with his music but also how to challenge them: Whether with demanding programmes, sophisticated interpretations or his own works and arrangements – Guy Braunstein aims to surprise and reinvent. And although he can easily be categorised in the “tradition of the great Jewish violinists such as Mischa Elman and Isaac Stern” (Telegraph), for him music lives not only from its own history but through perpetual renewal, updating and unexpected twists and turns.

Whether as a celebrated soloist who masters the standard repertoire from Bach to Shostakovich with ease or as a congenial chamber music partner in a wide variety of formations: Guy Braunstein is a guest at the world's most important music centres and festivals. He has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Berlin Philharmonic. His musical partners include András Schiff, Zubin Mehta, Maurizio Pollini, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yefim Bronfman, Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle, Martha Argerich, Mitsuko Uchida, Christoph von Dohnányi, Lang Lang, Emmanuel Ax, Andris Nelsons and Semyon Bychkov. Guy Braunstein is also present on the international concert stage as a conductor: he was Conductor and Artist in Residence with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Trondheim Symfoniorkester and works with orchestras such as the Helsinki, Rotterdam and Israel Philharmonic as well as the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of the 2023/24 season include concerts with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Soloists and the Copenhagen Phil, in which Guy Braunstein will appear as soloist and conductor. The programmes include his own works such as “Die Nacht wird immer verklärter” and the Rusalka Rhapsody as well as the violin concertos by Elgar, Delius and Haydn.

Guy Braunstein's greatest and identity-forming passion is arranging and composing: In the romantic tradition of Paganini and Liszt, he brilliantly transcribes musical masterpieces for his own or other instruments and instrumentations and presents operas, chamber music or even songs in a completely new form. In addition to excerpts from Tchaikovsky's “Eugene Onegin” and “Swan Lake”, he has also arranged Puccini arias and Dvořák's opera “Rusalka”. In 2023, “Die Nacht wird immer verklärter”, an arrangement of Schönberg's string sextet “Verklärte Nacht”, celebrated its premiere with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. The violinist is particularly fond of the Beatles' songs: in addition to Six Variations on “Blackbird” and the arrangements of “A hard day's night” and “Something”, Guy Braunstein also wrote “Abbey Road Concerto”, a highly virtuoso version of the Beatles' album “Abbey Road” for solo violin and orchestra.

In 2024, Guy Braunstein will release his own as well as Delius' Violin Concerto and Vaughan-Williams' “The Lark Ascending” on Alpha Records in a recording with Alondra de la Parra and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. His 2019 albums “Tchaikovsky Treasures” with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and his own arrangements, “Old Souls” with arrangements of chamber music works by Dvořák, Beethoven, Wolf and Kreisler and “Music of my Heart” (2012) with works by Bloch, Chausson, Brahms, Corelli and others were praised by the international press, as well as his recording of Bruch's Violin Concerto and the “Scottish Fantasy”, recorded with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ion Marin.

Guy Braunstein grew up in Tel Aviv and began playing the violin at the age of seven. He studied with Chaim Taub and later in New York with Glenn Dicterow and Pinchas Zuckerman and his mentor Isaac Stern. His collaboration with Claudio Abbado in particular is one of Guy Braunstein's most important influences. In 2000, he became the youngest violinist in the orchestra's history to take over the position of concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and helped shape the orchestra for over a decade. He was the Artistic Director of the Rolandseck Festival and the clasclas Festival in Galicia.

Guy Braunstein plays a violin made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1679.

Status: April 2024