Volker Hartung

Volker Hartung (2016)

Autograph

Volker Hartung (* 1955 in Cologne ) is a German violist and conductor of the Junge Philharmonie Cologne .

Career

Volker Hartung started playing the violin and viola at the age of nine . From 1972 he studied at the Cologne University of Music with the violists Gérard Ruymen and Rainer Moog, as well as with the Amadeus Quartet . In 1980 he received a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music in New York City , where he studied with violin teachers Ivan Galamian , Joseph Gingold and with Samuel Rhodes the violist of the Juilliard String Quartet .

He then studied at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles with William Primrose and Alan de Veritch the bowing technique of the Franco-Belgian violin school . Back in Germany, he studied conducting with Andreas Brockmann in the opera and singing studio in Wuppertal and with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich.

During his training he met Erich Kluge , the double bass player and founder of the Junge Philharmonie Köln , and joined the Junge Philharmonie as principal violist in 1976 . After the early death of Erich Kluge, he took over its management in 1986. In the following years he further developed the young philharmonic's talents , introduced them to ensemble playing and formed a symphony orchestra out of a small ensemble of changing musicians . He has led the Junge Philharmonie on concert tours to all continents and to numerous international music festivals .

A special focus of his work is the promotion of young talent. Volker Hartung accompanies and promotes young talents in their training and arranges solo concerts and performances for them . At concerts he puts the young artists in part especially before and provides them with the ovation of the audience in the foreground.

As a guest conductor he has performed with the MDR Symphony Orchestra , the Saint Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra , the Bulgarian Philharmonic , the Hamburger Camerata , the Philharmonie Stettin , the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma and the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra .

On February 22nd, 2005, following a concert in Strasbourg , Volker Hartung was arrested on charges of "undeclared work and illegal employment of mainly Eastern European musicians". In October 2008, he was therefore to three months in prison on probation and 10,000 euro fine condemned . In the appeal hearing on October 9, 2009, Volker Hartung was acquitted on all points . The judgment is final and no longer contestable.

In 2006, Volker Hartung retired from the operational management of the Junge Philharmonie and in the summer of 2006 took over the direction of orchestral and chamber music training at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore and lectures on music history and performance practice .

In 2011 he took over the musical direction of the Amadeus Music Academy in Vienna and in 2015 he became chief conductor and artistic director of the newly founded Golden Bay Philharmonic Orchestra in Zhuhai , People's Republic of China . In September 2015 he was appointed professor of orchestral studies and chamber music and music director at the United International College (UIC) of the Beijing Normal University & Hong Kong Baptist University in Zhuhai.

Volker Hartung is married to a French woman and has one son.