Violinist Joanna Kamenarska, born in Bulgaria in 1978, initially studied with Prof Josif Radionov in her home town of Sofia and from 1995 to 2004 with Prof Ruggiero Ricci and Prof Igor Ozim at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. During this time, she also gained valuable inspiration from masterclasses with Igor Oistrakh, Leonidas Kavakos, György Kurtág and Shmuel Ashkenasi. She won several prizes at international competitions early.

In 2002, Kamenarska won 3rd prize at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg and in 2005 was a semi-finalist at the "Concours Reine Elisabeth" in Brussels and the "Sibelius Competition" in Helsinki. Joanna Kamenarska regularly gives concerts in Europe, Asia, the USA and South America. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie and Laieszhalle Hamburg, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Schauspielhaus Berlin, the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Brucknerhaus Linz, the Gasteig Munich, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Schwetzingen Theatre, the Theater an der Wien, the Liederhalle Stuttgart, Cadogan Hall London and the Bulgaria Hall in Sofia, among others.

As a soloist, she has celebrated successes with orchestras such as the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, the Hamburg Camerata, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Salzburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Mozart Chamber Orchestra, the Salzburg Soloists, the CIS Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kodaly Philharmonic Debrecen, the TOHO Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra Györ, the Kodaly Philharmonic Orchestra Debrecen, the TOHO Symphony Orchestra, Kyushu Symphony Orchestra (Japan) as well as in her home country with the Sofia Soloists, the Philharmonic Orchestras in Sofia, Rousse, Varna, Chaskovo, Burgas, Razgrad, Pazardzhik, Vidin, Shumen, Sliven and many more. and many more.

Her solo repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the present day. She has worked with conductors such as Simone Young, Ljubka Biaggioni, Lisi Fuchs, Delyana Lazarova, Nayden Todorov, Vasil Kasandzhiev, Martin Panteleev, Konstantin Ilievsky, Tsanislav Petkov, Konstantin Dobroykov, Tibor Bényi, Kàlmán Berkes, Christian Kunert, Alexander Gordon, Nicolas Krüger, Paul Goodwin, Leslie Suganandarajah, Dennis Russel-Davies, Pierre Boulez and Kent Nagano.

Joanna Kamenarska has worked with artists such as Simone Young, Tamar Inbar, Quirine Viersen, Viktoria Vassilenko, Zlata Chochieva, Karl Leister, Alois Brandhofer, Hermann Baumann, Radovan Vlatkovic, Michael Martin Kofler, Benjamin Schmid, Lars-Anders Tomter, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Cyprien Katsaris, Atanas Krastev, Dmytro Choni and Roland Greutter.In the 2007/08 season, Joanna Kamenarska was second concertmaster of the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg. Since 2018, she has held the position of second concertmaster of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra.

In 2014, a CD was released for the Gega New label in collaboration with Irina Georgieva. It features works by Fauré, Prokofieff and Wieniawski. The CD "Lost Landscapes" with works by Schubert and Rautavaara was released for Urtext Classics in 2018. It was created in collaboration with Moisés Fernandes Via and was recorded at Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood (USA).

Joanna Kamenarska was engaged as first concertmaster, artistic director and soloist at the Hamburg Camerata, where she has been realising and conducting several concerts a year since 2021.

Her interpretations of Beethoven 1st Symphony, Viotti 22 and Brahms Violin Concertos, Bernstein Serenade, Mendelssohn Double Concerto with Dmytro Choni and Pisendel Violin Concerto in G minor, were acclaimed by the audience. Joanna will continue to take over the artistic direction of the chamber orchestra, participate in the programme design and will also be heard in the Laeiszhalle and Elbphilharmonie in 2024/25 as concertmaster and soloist.

A lifelong constant in Joanna Kamenarska's musical CV is the performance and dissemination of Bulgarian instrumental music beyond the borders of Bulgaria.
Bulgarian borders. The greatest milestone on this artistic path is undoubtedly the Hamburg premiere of the 1st Violin Concerto Op.11 by Pancho Vladiguerov in the main hall of the Elbphilharmonie on 2 March 2024 with the Hamburg Camerata, conducted by the Bulgarian conductor Delyana Lazarova. The grandiose piece was first performed in Berlin in 1921 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, soloist Gustav Havemann and conductor Fritz Reiner. One hundred years later, the brilliant concert in the Elbphilharmonie was a musical event of the century.

Joanna Kamenarska played from 2004 to 2013 on a G.B. Guadagnini violin from 1771, provided by the Donald Kahn-Trust Foundation. In the period 2018-2021 she played on an instrument by Lorenzo Guadagnini ("Ex-Flesh") from 1740 (Parma), on loan from private ownership.

Since 2021 she has owned, loved and played a modern violin by Vlado Tilev, Sofia from 2020, which has already accompanied her in halls such as Carnegie Hall, the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg.