Rolf Schulte: The Violin in Stravinsky's Life

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | Violinist Rolf Schulte presents “The Violin in Stravinsky’s Life,” a concert showcasing the violin works of influential modernist 20th-century composer Igor Stravinsky. Schulte is accompanied by pianist James Winn.

The violinist Rolf Schulte was born in Germany and started playing the violin at the age of five under his father’s tutelage. He later studied with Kurt Schäffer at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf, attended Yehudi Menuhin’s summer course in Gstaad, Switzerland, and studied with Franco Gulli at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, before moving to the United States to study with Ivan Galamian at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He made his orchestral début with the Philharmonia Hungarica in Cologne at the age of fourteen, playing Mendelssohn’s Concerto, and he has since performed with orchestras throughout Europe.

He has given the premières of new concertos and other works and made a series of important recordings, including Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto. He performed the complete violin works of Igor Stravinsky at the Berlin Festwochen, and the cycle of ten Beethoven sonatas at various places. From 1999 to 2001 he fulfilled a residency that included annual recitals at Harvard University. He is an alumnus of Young Concert Artists.

His long and distinguished discography includes recordings of Arnold Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto with the London Philharmonia (Naxos), Robert Schumann’s Works for Violin and Piano (Centaur Records), and several pieces of Elliott Carter: Violin Concerto (with the Odense Symphony), Four Lauds and Duo (all on Bridge Records), Schönberg Phantasy, op. 47 and String Trio op.45 (Naxos, nominated for a 2010 Grammy award), Violin Concerto No.1 by Paul Ruders (Bridge) and the Concerti of Roger Sessions and Donald Martino (available on iTunes). The most recent release is The Violin in Stravinsky’s Life on Aldilà Records.