Christa Schönfeldinger

The world of glass sounds opened up to Christa Schönfeldinger in the early nineties. After studying violin in Vienna, she first embarked on an orchestral career. Then it was a music puzzle in a daily newspaper, of all things, that drew her and her husband Gerald’s attention to a very special instrument: the glass harmonica. It would determine the course of her artistic life and eventually lead to the founding of the Vienna Glass Harmonica Duo.

Today, Christa Schönfeldinger is one of the world’s leading glass harmonica virtuosos. She has not only been able to take the traditional historical playing techniques to a new level, but has also expanded the playing of the glass harmonica with new techniques and contemporary musical aesthetics to achieve unimagined tonal effects. Her repertoire ranges from the standard works for glass harmonica (Mozart, Reichardt, Röllig, Schulz) to orchestral and operatic literature (Hasse, Donizetti, R. Strauss, Saint-Saëns) and numerous arrangements from the classical to the avant-garde.

Her interpretations have inspired contemporary composers to create new works, such as Jörg Widmann’s “Armonica” with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, which was premiered at the International Mozart Week Salzburg. Numerous invitations as soloist and chamber musician led her to the opening of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Musikverein Vienna, Salzburg Festival, Int. Mozartwoche Salzburg, PROMS Festival Royal Albert Hall, Schleswig Holstein Festival, Carinthischer Sommer, Int. Haydn Tage Eisenstadt, Philharmonie Berlin, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Bayreuth, Warsaw Autumn, Warsaw Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Kennedy Center Suntory Hall Tokyo and others.

Collaborations with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, New Philharmonic Orchestra Tokyo, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Dresdner Philharmonie, NDR and hr- Symphonie Orchester, Bruckner Orchester Linz, under Daniel Barenboim, Kirill Petrenko, Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Christoph Eschenbach, Franz Welser-Möst, Christoph Thielemann, Fabio Luisi, Sylvain Camberling, John Axelrod, Paavo Järvi and others.