Artists

Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren has forged a distinctive career as a superb soloist, empathetic chamber musician and collaborator, acclaimed recording artist and inspired entrepreneur. With a wide-ranging repertoire that spans the Classical era to the present day, he has been praised for his “bravura playing” (The Sunday Times) and interpretations imbued with “charm and elegance” (The Strad). Gramophone magazine has described “a listening experience that commands the attention from start to finish”, summoning, “Which way will Sebastian Bohren’s questing approach to repertoire take him next?”

Highlights of Sebastian Bohren’s concerto appearances are Mendelssohn and Szymanowski with Andrew Manze and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Beethoven with Michael Sanderling and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra; Mendelssohn and Eötvös with Ivor Bolton and Sinfonieorchester Basel; Bartok with Heinz Holliger and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana; Lindberg and Vasks with Thierry Fischer and the Munich Chamber Orchestra; Pärt and Schnittke with Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra; Mozart with Marc Minkowski and the Basel Chamber Orchestra; Beethoven with Cristian Macelaru and the Romanian Chamber Orchestra; and Mendelssohn with Christoph Poppen and the Cologne Chamber Orchestra. He has also collaborated with conductors Jan Willem de Vriend, Elim Chan and James Gaffigan.

Return engagements for the 2024-25 season include performances with Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and a tour with Heinz Holliger and the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur. Concertos from the 20^th and 21^st centuries dominate Sebastian Bohren’s 2024-25 season: he will perform Berg with Otto Tausk and Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz; Othmar Schoeck with Izabele Jankauskaite at Stadtcasino Basel; Dutilleux’s violin concerto “L’arbre des songes” (The Tree of Dreams) with Emmanuel Tjeknavorian and Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano; and Peteris Vasks’ second violin concerto, “In Evening Light”, with Mario Venzago and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbron. He will also perform with Sergej Bolkhovets and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and tour Switzerland with Jonathan Bloxham and the London Mozart Players.

Sebastian Bohren’s chamber music credentials include membership in the Stradivari Quartet for seven years (2013 – 2020), performing internationally in such venues as the Berlin Philharmonie, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing and Victoria Hall in Singapore. In recital, his collaborators have included pianists Andreas Haefliger, Claire Huangci and Konstantin Lifschitz; clarinettist Reto Bieri; saxophonist Valentine Michaud; violinists Roby Lakatos, Josef Spacek, Daniel Hope and Dmitri Sitkovetsky; violist Antoine Tamestit; and cellists Thomas Demenga, Anastasia Kobekina and Christian Poltera.

Sebastian Bohren’s distinguished discography embraces classic concertos, innovative arrangements and world-premieres. His most recent release, on AVIE Records, pairs the premiere recording of Latvian composer Peteris Vasks’ second violin concerto, “In Evening Light”, with an orchestration of Schubert’s virtuosic Rondeau brilliant. Also on AVIE is a pair of Mozart concertos, with Gabor Takacs-Nagy conducting the Swiss-based CHAARTS Ensemble. For RCA Red Seal, Sebastian has recorded the concertos of Beethoven, Britten, Mendelssohn, and Karl Amadeus Hartmann; and for Sony Classical, Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata in an arrangement by Andrei Pushkarev for violin, string orchestra and percussion.

Sebastian Bohren’s entrepreneurial flair led to his establishing the Swiss-based Brugg Festival in 2023, a week-long gathering that hosts a variety of musicians and offers a robust educational element. Sebastian is also the artistic director of Stretta Concerts, a year-long series of concerts featuring soloists, chamber ensembles and orchestras from throughout Europe.

Sebastian plays a 1761 violin made in Parma by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, the “Ex-Wanamaker-Hart”.