Isabelle Faust
{{Short description|German violinist (born 1972)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Isabelle Faust
| image = Isabelle Faust B 09-2012.jpg
| caption = Faust in 2012
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1972|03|19|df=y}}
| birth_place = Esslingen
| occupation = {{ubl| Classical violinist | Academic teacher }}
| organizations = Berlin University of the Arts
| spouse =
| website =
| awards = {{ubl| Gramophone Award | Cannes Classical Award | Diapason d'Or }}
}}
Isabelle Faust (born 19 March 1972) is a German violinist who has worked internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She has received multiple awards.
Life and career
Faust was born in Esslingen am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg, on 12 March 1972.{{cite news | title=Isabelle Faust| url=https://www.munzinger.de/search/go/document.jsp?id=00000030669| work=Munzinger Archiv GmbH | access-date=24 June 2020}}{{cite news | title=Isabelle Faust| url=https://brockhaus.de/ecs/enzy/article/faust-isabelle| work=NE GmbH Brockhaus| access-date=24 June 2020}} She received her first violin lessons at age five. Her father, then a 31-year-old secondary school teacher, decided to learn the violin. He took his daughter along: his talent was not especially stellar, but his daughter learned the technical fundamentals of violin playing correctly at an unusually early age, quickly becoming the star pupil. Shortly after that her brother also began to take lessons and when Isabelle was 11 the parents created a family string quartet for which several masterclasses were later organised with some of the leading string players of the time. The early start was for both children the basis for musical careers; Boris Faust is a professional violist.{{cite news |title=Wie erziehen Sie Ihre Geige, Frau Faust? |newspaper=FAZ |date= 9 June 2012 | url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buehne-und-konzert/isabelle-faust-im-gespraech-wie-erziehen-sie-ihre-geige-frau-faust-11770844.html?printPagedArticle=true#pageIndex_2 |quote=Die Geigerin Isabelle Faust spricht über das Leben mit einer Stradivari, ihre Lehrer und die Arbeit an Alban Bergs Violinkonzert gemeinsam mit Claudio Abbado. |last=Tewinkel |first=Christiane |accessdate=24 July 2017}}
{{Quote box|bgcolor=#FFEEDD|align=right|width=40%|fontsize=100%
|quote=...on Bach's six unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas:
In a way, this repertoire is the most difficult ... I mean, the huge C major fugue! To enter this kind of music and not only understand it intellectually but also emotionally? It's sometimes almost strange to go on stage. It feels complete, what you do, the two of you. ... I've always wondered: did Bach really mean for them to be played in public? I have my doubts.{{cite news|author=Anna Picard|date=15 September 2013|title=Isabelle Faust: musical sleuth|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/15/isabelle-faust-violin-musical-sleuth-interview|accessdate=24 July 2017}}
{{right|Isabelle Faust interviewed by Anna Picard in 2013}}
}}
Faust trained with Christoph Poppen and Dénes Zsigmondy. After winning the Paganini Competition, and keen to broaden her experience, she moved in 1996 to Paris, where she lived for the next nine years. There she recorded her first album, featuring music by Béla Bartók. She attracted plaudits as an interpreter of Gabriel Fauré. Faust later said that it probably did no harm to her career that, because of her French first name, many French listeners assumed she was French. It was also in France that she met her husband.{{cite web|title=Klänge für den Weltraum|work=Die Zeit|author=Volker Hagedorn|date=29 November 2012|url=http://www.zeit.de/2012/49/Geigerin-Isabelle-Faust-Bach|accessdate=24 July 2017}}
In 2004 Faust was appointed professor of violin at the Berlin University of the Arts. She lives in Berlin and has a son. Since 1996, she has performed on the "Sleeping Beauty" Stradivarius violin of 1704, on loan from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg. She has also performed with Baroque-style violins and bows.
Faust has performed as guest soloist with most of the world's major orchestras. In addition to the recordings listed under "Awards and Prizes," she has recorded works of Ludwig van Beethoven, Antonín Dvořák, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms (including the Violin Concerto), Alban Berg, Bohuslav Martinů, André Jolivet and others. She is a proponent of new music and has given world premieres of works by, among others, Olivier Messiaen, Werner Egk, Péter Eötvös, and Jörg Widmann.{{cite web |url=http://www.artsmg.com/Strings/IsabelleFaust/index.html |title=Arts Management Group |website=Artsmg.com |accessdate=2013-06-15 |archive-date=27 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130327115946/http://www.artsmg.com/Strings/IsabelleFaust/index.html |url-status=dead }} James R. Oestreich of The New York Times counted her recording of Mozart's violin concertos among the best recordings of 2016.[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/arts/music/best-classical-music-recordings-2016.html "The Best Classical Music Recordings of 2016"] by Zachary Woolfe, Anthony Tommasini, David Allen, James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, 15 December 2016
Awards and prizes
- 1987: International Violin Competition Leopold Mozart in Augsburg, First Prize[http://www.leopold-mozart-competition.de/de/competition/content/879 Preisträger 1987] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115050146/http://www.leopold-mozart-competition.de/de/competition/content/879 |date=2018-01-15 }}, Internationaler Violinwettbewerb Leopold Mozart
- 1990: Premio Quadrivio Competition (Rovigo, Italy), First Prize
- 1993: Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy, First Prize {{cite web|url=http://www.paganini.comune.genova.it/premio_vincitori_eng.htm|title=Home – Premiopaganini|website=Paganini.comune.genova.it|accessdate=25 September 2017}}
- 1994: {{ill|Förderpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen für junge Künstlerinnen und Künstler|de}}
- 1997: Gramophone Award for "Young Artist of the Year" for her first CD, the Sonata for Solo Violin and the Violin Sonata No. 1 of Béla Bartók on Harmonia Mundi{{cite web|url=http://www.gramophone.co.uk/Artist-of-the-year-2012/Faust |title=Isabelle Faust (violinist) |website=Gramophone.co.uk |accessdate=2013-06-15}}
- 2002: Cannes Classical Award for her recording for ECM of the Concerto Funèbre of Karl Amadeus Hartmann
- 2010: Diapason d'Or de l'Année for her recording of the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin of Johann Sebastian Bach for Harmonia Mundi {{cite web|url=http://www.impresariat-simmenauer.de/Artists/IsabelleFaust/biography-en.html |title=Impresariat Simmenauer – Violin – Isabelle Faust – Biography |website=Impresariat-simmenauer.de |accessdate=2013-06-15}}
- 2012: Gramophone Award for Best Chamber Recording for her recording of the violin sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven with pianist Alexander Melnikov for Harmonia Mundi{{cite web|url=http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/gramophone-awards-2010-unveiled |title=Gramophone Awards 2010 unveiled |website=Gramophone.co.uk |date=2010-09-30 |accessdate=2013-06-15}}
- 2012: Echo Klassik Award for her recording of the violin sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven with pianist Alexander Melnikov for Harmonia Mundi
- 2012: Diapason d'Or for her recording of the violin sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven with pianist Alexander Melnikov
- 2013: International Classical Music Awards for her recording of the first three Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin of Johann Sebastian Bach for Harmonia Mundi{{Cite web |date=2013-02-23 |title=Winners 2013 - ICMA {{!}} ICMA |url=https://www.icma-info.com/winners-2013/ |access-date=2024-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240419144107/https://www.icma-info.com/winners-2013/ |archive-date=19 April 2024 }}
- 2016: International Classical Music Awards for her recording of the violin sonatas of Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Albert Dietrich with pianist Alexander Melnikov for Harmonia Mundi{{Cite web |date=2016-01-20 |title=Winners 2016 - ICMA {{!}} ICMA |url=http://www.icma-info.com/icma-2016-the-winners-%E2%80%8E/ |access-date=2024-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240419144157/http://www.icma-info.com/icma-2016-the-winners-%E2%80%8E/ |archive-date=19 April 2024 }}
- 2017: Gramophone Award for Best Concerto Recording and Recording of the Year for her recording of the violin concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini for Harmonia Mundi
References
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Category:Academic staff of the Berlin University of the Arts
Category:Paganini Competition prize-winners
Category:German women classical violinists
Category:20th-century German classical violinists
Category:21st-century German classical musicians
Category:People from Esslingen am Neckar
Category:20th-century German women musicians
Category:21st-century German women musicians
Category:21st-century German classical violinists