Barbara Buntrock is an extraordinary young artist who has performed as soloist and in chamber music and with orchestras both at home in Germany and internationally. In 2008 the jury of the Von der Heydt Awards in her hometown, Wuppertal, singled out her “high degree of musicality and expressive, tonally sensual play.” It also paid tribute to her “musical maturity as a young artistic personality.”  In addition, Buntrock took first prize at the 2007 International Music Competition in Markneukirchen and has garnered accolades in competitions including the ARD Munich, the Concours de Genève and the German Music Competition.

Buntrock studied at the Luebeck Music Conservatory under professor Barbara Westphal, and received practical training at the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory in Berlin where she honed her skills under the tutelage of Lars Anders Tomter and Tabea Zimmermann in preparation for her graduate recital.

She also attended a variety of Masters courses including the Verbier Festival Academy and the International Music Academy of Switzerland, where she worked with musicians such as Seiji Ozawa, Nobuko Imai, Gabor Takács-Nagy Kim Kashkashian, Yuri Bashmet, Anner Bylsma and Bruno Giuranna.

As a recipient of grants from the German National Merit Foundation and the German Foundation for Musical Life, Buntrock also spent a year at the Juilliard School in New York, as a student of Heidi Castleman.

Buntrock has performed as a soloist with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra, the Kurpfälzischen Chamber Orchestra, the Südwestdeutschen Chamber Orchestra in Pforzheim and with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she was first solo Violist at the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig from February 2009 – December 2010, before giving up the chair to pursue solo and chamber music projects. She has recently signed a contract to teach Viola and Orchestral Studies at the Music Conservatory in Luebeck.

Together with the Leipziger String Quartet, Barbara recorded Beethoven string quintets for the MDG music label in March 2011. She is also a member of the Mariani Piano Quartet which was recently awarded a grant from the German Music Competition.

Buntrock’s viola was crafted by Antonio Mariani Pesaro, circa 1650. The instrument was once used by legendary violist Lionel Tertis.