
Joanna Kamenarska Violinist
Joanna Kamenarska was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She first studied with Prof. Josif Radionov in Sofia and continued her studies in 1995 with Prof. Ruggiero Ricci and Prof. Igor Ozim at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. During this time, she also attended the master classes of Igor Oistrach, Leonidas Kavakos, György Kurtág and Shmuel Ashkenasi. She has been awarded numerous prizes at international competitions since the age of ten, including the third prize of the International Mozart Competition Salzburg in January, 2002. She was also semifinalist in the Queen Elizabeth International Competition and the Sibelius Competition 2005.
Joanna Kamenarska gave concerts concerts in Asia and South America and in Europe she performed in the Laeiszhalle and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, inConcertgebouw Amsterdam, Schauspielhaus Berlin, Mozarteum Grosser Saal, Grosse Aula of the University of Salzburg, Brucknerhaus Linz, Gasteig Munich, Tonhalle Zurich, Schwetzingen Theater, Theater an der Wien, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Cadogan Hall London, Bulgaria Hall Sofia. She has been the featured soloist with many orchestras including the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Nuremberg Symphony, Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, Mozart Chamber Orchestra, Salzburg Soloists, Chamber Orchestra CIS, L ́Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Hamburg Camerata, Hamburger Symphoniker, Polen Chamber Philharmonic, Philharmonic Orchestra Györ, Kodaly Philharmonic Debrecen, TOHO Symphony orchestra, Japan, as well as symphony orchestras in her country in Sofia, Rousse, Varna and many others.
Her solo repertoire ranges from the baroque to the contemporary music and includes the great romantic concerts by Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tschaikowski, Korngold and Ligeti. She has collaborated with Paul Goodwin, Dennis Russell-Davies, Ljubka Biaggioni and Pierre Boulez. She receives invitations regularly to participate in numerous festivals and concert series like the Festival di Pasqua and Nuovi Spazi Musicali of Rome, Festival Santa Christina in Spain, Aspekte New Music Festival, Salzburg, European Music Festival in Lisbon, Salzburg Cultural Days, Apollonia Festival of Arts, Sozopol, Bulgaria, International Mozarteum Foundation, Salzburg, Mozart Festival, Schwetzingen, Bachgesellschaft, Salzburg, and Mozartfest in Chieti.
As a long-time resident of Salzburg by choice and winner of the Mozart Competition, Joanna Kamenarska is particularly familiar with the works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and she has performed all of his violin concertos several times. As a chamber musician, Joanna Kamenarska performed concerts not only as a violinist in the repertoire from Viennese classical to the contemporary music, but also as a baroque violinist and violist. Her experience with the baroque violin spanned numerous concerts, including a solo recital at the Salzburg Bach Society, most recently with the motto "Bach and his predecessors" in which she performed solo sonatas by Pisendel, Biber, Westhoff and Bach's Chaconne, as well as the performance the Biber's Rosary Sonatas with the necessary scordatura. Cooperation with the Ensemble Hamburger Ratsmusik - the gambist Simone Eckert and the harpsichordist Michael Fuerst, Reinhard Goebel and some performances as concertmaster under the direction of Alessandro de Marchi at the Hamburg State Opera, mark stations on this special branch of her artistic development.
She has been collaborating for many years with the Swedish pianist Per Rundberg. They encompass a vast repertoire, which is extending from music of the 15. century up to Avantgarde and new music. The duo made use of a considerable repertoire, had premiered several pieces and performed at several festivals from 2002 to 2010. Together, they realized several recordings for Hessischer Rundfunk, ORF, Bulgarian National Radio and Television and Swedish Radio. She has performed with artists like Simone Young, Karl Leister, Alois Brandhofer, Hermann Baumann, Radovan Vlatkovic, Michael Martin Kofler, Benjamin Schmid, Lars-Anders Tomter, Quirine Viersen, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Sofia-Quartett, Voces-Quartett, Joachim Held, Reinhard Goebel, Emma KIrkby, Roland Greutter, Sofia Quartett. Since then she has been the first violin of Faust Quartett Basel on a project basis. From 2004–2007, she was Primaria of the Mozart Quartet Salzburg and 2006 she performed all of Mozart's string quartets for the Mozart Year.
Joanna Kamenarska was contracted as concertmaster with the NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg for the 2007/2008 season. During this time, she won the audition for the second Concertmaster position of Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, which she has held since September 2008. She has been regularly invited as a guest concertmaster with the following orchestras: Camerata Salzburg, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Kassel, Hamburger Camerata and Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, a CD was released for the Gega New label in collaboration with Irina Georgieva with works by Fauré, Prokofieff and Wieniawski. In 2018, Urtext Classics released the CD “Landscapes” with works by Schubert and Rautavaara, recorded in Seiji-Ozawa-Hall Tanglewood USA in collaboration with Moisés Fernandes Via.
Joanna Kamenarska played form 2004 to 2013 on a G.B. Guadagnini violin from 1771, made available by the Donald Kahn Trust Foundation and up to now on an instrument by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini ("Ex-Flesh") from 1740 (Parma, loan from private property).