Scottish Music Centre - Industry Directory

Artists | Classical | Violin

Susanne Stanzeleit has appeared at numerous festivals, most notably the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Dartington International Summer School, Barcelona New Music, international festivals in Ohrid, Varna, Riga, Italy, New York State, Cyprus, Malta, Newbury, Canterbury, Swansea, York Late Music, IMS Open Chamber Music and many others.

She is well known for her unusually challenging and extensive repertoire, featuring many commissions and UK premieres of works by composers such as John Adams, Lou Harrison, Gyorgy Kurtag, John Woolrich, Philip Cashian, Rebecca Saunders etc.

As first violin of the Werethina String Quartet for many years, Susanne Stanzeleit has won several prizes at international competitions, such as the London International String Quartet Competition in 1992. Between January 2000 and June 2002 she was leader of the Edinburgh String Quartet, one of the UK's leading and longest established chamber groups, with whom she enjoyed a busy performing schedule.

She has also recently been appointed co-leader of Sinfonia 21 in addition to being a sought-after guest leader of orchestras and ensembles including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St John’s, the East of England Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Teatre Lliure, Barcelona, the BT Scottish Ensemble, the St Endellion Festival Orchestra, Capricorn, and many others.

A popular chamber musician, she has performed with eminent artists such as Gervase de Peyer, Eduard Brunner, Zara Nelsova, Colin Carr, Steven Doane, Norbert Brainin and Michael Collins, as well as regular pianist partners, Julian Jacobson and Gusztav Fenyo.

Susanne Stanzeleit regularly broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, German Radio and other major TV and radio stations abroad. She has received rave reviews and a Gramophone Award nomination for her commercial recordings, which feature the complete works of Bartok on ASV and Dvorak on Meridian, as well as a series of English sonata recordings for Cala/United and works by Charles Camilleri, on ASV and Meridian. With the Edinburgh Quartet she has recorded two discs for Meridian and a recording of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” for Casmara. Future releases include quartets and chamber music by Kenneth Leighton and violin music of Enescu, all on Meridian.

Susanne Stanzeleit studied with Leonid Kogan, Nathan Milstein, Vesselin Paraschkevov, Yfrah Neaman, Sandor Vegh and Gyorgy Kurtag, and she is now regularly invited to teach and give masterclasses at summer schools such as Dartington, Paxos, Ayton, Paxton and others. From 1993-2000 she was visiting lecturer of violin and chamber music at the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. She has just been appointed Head of Strings at the London College of Music and Media.