The Austrian violinist and conductor, Erich Höbarth, was born in Vienna in 1956, the only child of a musical family. At the age of 9 he began violin studies with Professor Grete Biedermann at the Vienna Conservatory. He later went on to study under Professor Franz Samohyl at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts and finally under Sandor Vegh at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1977, the 21-year-old Höbarth accepted Vegh’s invitation to join his renowned Végh Quartet as second violinist and also to work as an assistant in Vegh’s master-classes.
Erich Höbarth was first concertmaster of the Wiener Symphoniker from 1980 to 1987. From 1979 he was concertmaster and soloist with the Concentus Musicus Wien ensemble under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. From 1979 to 1984, he was a member of the Wiener Streichsextett (Vienna String Sextet), which he co-founded. The ensemble is committed to maintaining “a living Viennese style”, to this end several contemporary composers have written works for the ensemble. The ensemble made highly-successful concert tours around the world. The idea was to try to apply the group’s experience with so-called “old music” on original instruments to the classical quartet repertoire, but without pseudo-authentic affectation. This ensemble appears regularly at all important concert events in Europe as well as at major international festivals (Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Montreux, etc.) The group’s reputation has also been firmly established through award-winning CD recordings. (Two Grammy Awards for Haydn’s Quartets Op. 20 and Op. 33). Since 1987 he is the first violinist of the Quatour Mosaiques, which plays the classical repertoire on original instruments and collaborates in chamber music with András Schiff and Sabine Meyer.
Erich Höbarth appears frequently as a soloist with such groups as the Camerata Academica Salzburg, Wiener Kammerorchester, La Chapelle Royale (Paris), Baltic Philharmonia, Graz Philharmonic Orchestra, RSO Vienna, the Wiener Symphoniker, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and many others. His preferences lie with the concertos of J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, Haydn, L.v. Beethoven, Robert Schumann and Alban Berg. He also performs chamber music with fellow soloists such as pianists András Schiff and Elisabeth Leonskaja, harpsichordists Wolfgang Glüxam, Aapo Häkkinen and Michel Kiener, clarinetist Sabine Mayer, and cellist Miklos Perenyi, among others.
His numerous CD recordings include J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, W.A. Mozart’s serenades with solo violin (with Concentus Musicus Wien/Teldec), piano trios by Haydn and L.v. Beethoven (Harmonia Mundi), W.A. Mozart's sonatas for piano and violin, string quartets by Haydn, W.A. Mozart, L.v. Beethoven, Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn (Astree) as well as nearly the whole string sextet repertoire (EMI).
Erich Höbarth’s first teaching post was as a guest professor for violin at the Graz University of Music and Performing Arts. He later held a special teaching post at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts where he taught chamber music for two years. He has been Professor of the summer academy Prag-Wien-Budapest and the European Chamber Music Academy for string quartet. He has resigned as guest professor in Graz so he can devote himself more intensively to the Camerata Bern. He takes over as Artistic Director on August 2001. hae held this post until 2009. In 2009 the Geigenbauschule Brienz foundation awarded him the prize “Goldener Bogen”(golden bow) for his outstanding achievements in the promotion of string instruments. Source: Bach Cantatas Website

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