Benjamin Schmid

Benjamin Schmid studied in Salzburg, Vienna and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and won a number of international awards, amongst them the Carl Flesch Competition. Following performances of Korngold 's Violin Concerto with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Seiji Ozawa at the Salzburg Festival, he was immediately re-invited by the orchestra for subscription concerts at the Vienna Musikverein and, in 2011, returned again for a performance of Kreisler’s adaption of the Paganini concerto under Valery Gergiev. This concert at the prestigious Schönbrunn Open Air festival was broadcast in more than 60 countries and released as a CD and DVD by Deutsche Grammophon.

Other engagements led Schmid to leading orchestras such as the Philharmonia, Royal Concertgebouw and Czech Philharmonic orchestras, Gewandhausorchester zu Leipzig, Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich, the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, the Gulbenkian Orchestra and many others. September 2011 saw an extensive and highly acclaimed tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

He has been heralded as “one of the most valuable of today’s golden-age-violinists“ (The New York Sun), with his work described as “a violin classic” (The Strad). Schmid is also a sought-after jazz violinist.