Wilfried Strehle (Germany)

After his studies with Emil Kessinger, Ulrich Koch, and Tibor Varga in 1971 Wilfried Strehle, then just over 20 years old, became a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra led by Herbert von Karajan. From 1984 to 2013 he held the position of viola soloist.

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At the University of Arts Berlin Professor Strehle has taught Viola since 2001 as well as at Barenboim-Said Academie (2017-2020). Moreover, for decades he has been teaching at the Karajan Academy of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. A lot of his students earned great success and went on to become members of Berlin Phil as well as other important orchestras in cities like Berlin, Wien, Munich, Dresden, and Hamburg. Wilfried Strehle also frequently has been asked to teach in master classes all over the world, for example by the Summer Academy of Mozarteum Salzburg and by the conservatories of Moscow, Yale, Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo.

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Apart from his activities in orchestra and as a teacher he also enjoys pursuing his career as a well-renowned soloist and a high-profile chamber musician. Notably, he was a founding member of the world-famous Brandis Quartet for 25 years. Amongst many others, his musical partners are Yefim Bronfman and David Geringas with whom in 2016 and 2019 he was invited by Valery Gergiev to perform Richard Strauss “Don Quixote” as soloists with Mariinsky Orchestra at the Festival Stars of the White Nights in St. Petersburg. For chamber music, he is regularly invited to this Festival.

Playing chamber music and as a soloist, he traveled to South America, Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the USA. A lot of chamber music is recorded by Harmonie Mundi, Orfeo, Teldec, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon und Nimbus Records.