Daniel Austrich, born in 1984 in St. Petersburg, Russia, commenced studies of the violin at the age of five. He entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory Academy in 1993, where he studied with Alla Aranovskaya, the leader of the acclaimed St.Petersburg String Quartet. Two years later, he was selected to perform with the St.Petersburg Camerata in the Grand Philharmonic Hall in St.Petersburg, under the conductor Peter Ash. He has performed Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” with the St.Petersburg State University Orchestra, and has performed in city’s most prestigious concert venues, including the Hermitage Museum Theater and the Yusupov Palace. Daniel and his family moved to Hamburg, Germany in 1997. From 1999 until 2001, Daniel attended Hamburg’s Musikhochschule, where he studied with Albrecht Breuninger. After winning First Prize at the Hamburg Instrumental Contest in 1999, he was invited by the famous cellist David Geringas to perform in the Festival of Russian Music in Schloss Elmau, Bavaria. As the first prize winner at the German competition “Jugend musiziert” (2001), he was invited to record for the NDR (North German Radio) and Berlin’s “Deutschlandradio”.
In August of 2001 Daniel received a full scholarship to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where he now studies with Ms. Aranovskaya. Recent and future engagements include solo performances in Europe with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra in the Tonhalle Zurich , Jena Philharmonic under Mika Eichenholz, (which booked him for an additional performance in December under Fabrice Bollon), Hamburg’s Mozart Orchester under the baton of Robert Stehli in the Musikhalle Hamburg, and in the US with Charleston and Auburn Symphonies. Recitals in well-known music series include “St.Petersburg Dagen” in Holland (celebrating the 300th anniversary of Daniel’s native city), Arizona Friends of Chamber Music in Tucson (where he also taught his own Masterclass), “Piccolo Spoleto” in SC, South Shore Music in CT and Davos International Music Festival of Switzerland, where the “Neue Zurcher Zeitung” praised “his noble tone”.
Daniel is a recipient of special grants from the “Lyra” Foundation in Zurich, and “Die Zeit” foundation in Germany. He was invited to record for “Energia,” the new album of Jose Carreras, where he plays in a duet with a great tenor. As a prize-winner of the Deutsche Musikinstrumentenfonds contest in Hamburg, in 2002, Daniel Austrich was granted the use of a rare Andrea Guarneri violin form 1663.
