The concert debut in March 2004 in Paris with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Sir Neville Marriner drew international attention on the young violinist Arabella Steinbacher.
“Natural and with placid contemplation, distinguished and musically aesthetic, both elegant and rich in tone, while intelligently interpreted. A violinist who bewilders the senses. Arabella Steinbacher sings, breathes and phrases with total ease (Hamburg Morgenpost).
“A confident, mature artist of interpretation whose quality of sound is overwhelming” (Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung)
Arabella Steinbacher was deemed one of the most talented child violin prodigies from a very early age. Born in Munich in 1981 (father German, mother Japanese), she began tuition at the age of three. She was taken on by Ana Chumachenko as her youngest student at the Munich College of music at the age of nine, an opportunity subsequently proving to be a significant stroke of luck. To this day Ana Chumachenko remains one of her closest confidants. Regularly Arabella Steinbacher meets with Ivry Gitlis in Paris to whom she has forged strong links and whom she owes many musical interpretations. Arabella Steinbacher took part in master classes by Dorothy DeLay and Kurt Sassmannshaus in Aspen, Colorado. She was winner of the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hannover in 2000 and awarded a grant by the Free State of Bavaria in 2001. In the same year she was given a scholarship by the Anne-Sophie-Mutter foundation. Furthermore, Anne Sophie Mutter herself has supported and promoted her personally; Arabella`s Benoit Rolland violin bow was a personal gift. In shortest time Arabella Steinbacher gained outstanding success. Concerts in Japan, Australia, Russia, Monte Carlo, France, Great Britain and Spain were followed by invitations to Italy, Finland, Denmark and Norway. As soloist of the Mariinsky Orchestra, Arabella Steinbacher could be heard in November 2004 with Valerij Gergiev in Munich and Frankfurt and in October 2005 with Lopez-Cobos in La Coruna, Oviedo and Tenerife. For her exceptional talent she was awarded the Star of the Year 2004 by the newspaper Münchner Abendzeitung. Arabella Steinbacher could be heard under the baton of many renowned conductors like, as already mentioned, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Colin Davis, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Valerij Gergiev as well as Marek Janowski, Vladimir Fedosseyev, Sakari Oramo, Pinchas Steinberg and Walter Weller. Future engagements will lead the young artist to Munich with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis, to the USA with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Kurt Masur in Mai 2006 and to Tokyo with Seiji Ozawa. For the same year she has been invited by Yuri Temirkanov to be soloist for the St. Petersburg Philharmonic orchestra tour in Germany in 2006. In his context she will be heard, amongst others, in Munich, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Berlin. The varied repertoire from Arabella Steinbacher ranges from violin concertos of the classic-romantic period to violin concertos by Barber, Berg, Glasunow, Khatschaturian, Prokofieff, Schostakowitsch and Stravinsky. Also important in her calendar is the chamber music where she can me heard with concerts in Florenz, at the Munich Summer Festival, at the Schleswig-Hostein-Music Festival and at the Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in Sweden, Zurich, Dortmund, Halberstadt, Dresden and at the Schwetzinger Festival. Her piano partners are Robert Kulek, Peter von Wienhardt and Markus Groh as well as the cellists Alban Gerhardt and Daniel Müller-Schott. Arabella Steinbacher has an exclusive contract with Orfeo International. In 2004 Orfeo released the Khatchaturian concerto with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo. In June 2005 Arabella’s recording with the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra under Pinchas Steinberg with pieces by Darius Milhaud has been released. Violin Concertos by Tschaikowsky and Mendelssohn as well as Spanish and South American music my Piazolla, de Falla, Ginastera and Ponce are planned. Arabella Steinbacher plays on a Stradivari "Muntz", Cremona 1736, generously loaned to her by the Nippon Music Foundation.