Univ.-Prof.ⁱⁿ Mirjam TSCHOPP

Viola ME, IME, IGP, MBP, MTH, KF

Contact: tschopp@mdw.ac.at

 

Since her debut as a soloist at thirteen, Mirjam Tschopp (born in Zurich) has enjoyed a varied international career as violinist and viola player, with both instruments featuring equally in her activities. In both recital and chamber music programmes, she switches easily between them. She was appointed professor of both, violin and viola, at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 2018.

Her keen interest in 20th and 21st century music has led to highly regarded projects. Under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, she premiered the violin concerto dedicated to her by Nicolas Bacri. Her CDs of the violin and viola concertos by Ahmed Adnan Saygun (2005/07) were enthusiastically reviewed, leading to invitations from eminent orchestras. Equally acclaimed were her projects “Women Composers” (2013) and the portrait in concert and on CD of the Swiss-Ukrainian violinist and violist Alexander Schaichet (2020-22). Last but not least, her recording of the violin and viola sonatas by Dmitri Shostakovich (2016) – referred to as “reference recording” – was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards.

Passionately fond of chamber music, she has made a name for herself in ensembles including Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Mandelring-Quartett, Josef Suk a.o.. Until 2015 she performed to outstanding success with her Italian-Swiss piano trio Trio des Alpes. As Duo TschoppBovino with pianist Riccardo Bovino she has devoted herself since 2004 to the sonata repertoire and in 2021 she started the extraordinary ensemble The Quinten Project.

She appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Camerata, the Argentine National Symphony Orchestra, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra Ankara, the Dortmund Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra Basel, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and has worked with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, José Serebrier, Pinchas Steinberg, Ari Rasilainen, Marc Piollet, Howard Griffiths, Gabriel Feltz and Matthias Foremny.

She has performed in the Musikverein Vienna, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall London, the Philharmonie Köln, the Beethovenhaus Bonn, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart and the Glazunov-Hall in St. Petersburg, the Tonhalle Zurich, at the Lucerne Festival, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad and the Verbier Festival. Her extensive concert tours with the Mutter’s Virtuosi took her to some of the most prestigious venues in Germany, Austria, China, Taiwan and Korea. Producer Adrian Marthaler portrayed her in numerous productions for Swiss Television.

The only prize-winner of the 2000 Max Rostal Viola Competition in Berlin and recipient of the Swiss Ambassador’s Award, she was supported by the Society of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. After her linguistic Matura, she studied violin with Aïda Stucki, Franco Gulli and Thomas Brandis and viola with Christoph Schiller.

Mirjam Tschopp is a fervent pedagogue, and teaching plays an important role in her life: before being appointed to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 2018, she taught at the Landeskonservatorium Innsbruck and at the Konservatorium Zurich. She teaches masterclasses at the Austrian Master Classes and at the Eva Lind Musikakademie. Furthermore she is a jury member of several competitions and at Music Universities and is active in the school-project Rhapsody in School.

www.mirjamtschopp.com