Elena Kuessner

Biography

Receiving her first violin lessons at the age of 3 with Abraham Jaffé, Elena later studied with Prof. Bernhard Hartog as a junior student at the UdK Berlin and Rollo Kovac in Paris, while regularly participating in masterclasses with Zakhar Bron, Janine Jansen, and Rainer Schmidt. This year, she was invited to the Gstaad Menuhin Festival.

At 19, Elena has already successfully participated and won several first prizes national and international competitions, such as the “Jugend musiziert” in Germany, the "Clés d’Or" in Paris, the "Stockholm international music competition" in Sweden, and the "Violin of the North" in Russia.  At the age of 10 she had her debut as soloist under the baton of Yuri Bashmet at an open-air concert in Vienna. In the following years she had various solo appearances at the Philharmonie Berlin, several concert tours to Japan, as well as concerts in France, Sweden, Italy, and Germany. In October 2014 she had her debut at the Metropolitan Museum New York and performed chamber music with members of the Berliner Philharmonic Orchestra. She also was given the opportunity to perform in front of 55,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.  She currently studies in Stockholm, Sweden, with Henrik Naimark-Meyers. 

Besides her passion for music, she is an avid rock climber and academic, studying at the renowned Karolinska Institutet