Isabelle Faust

Isabelle Faust (born 19 March 1972) is a German violinist who has worked internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She has received multiple awards.

Life and career Faust was born in Esslingen am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg, on 12 March 1972. She received her first violin lessons at age five. Her father, then a 31-year-old secondary school teacher, decided to learn the violin. He took his daughter along: his talent was not especially stellar, but his daughter learned the technical fundamentals of violin playing correctly at an unusually early age, quickly becoming the star pupil. Shortly after that her brother also began to take lessons and when Isabelle was 11 the parents created a family string quartet for which several masterclasses were later organised with some of the leading string players of the time. The early start was for both children the basis for musical careers; Boris Faust is a professional violist.

Faust trained with Christoph Poppen and Dénes Zsigmondy. After winning the Paganini Competition, and keen to broaden her experience, she moved in 1996 to Paris, where she lived for the next nine years.

In 2004 Faust was appointed professor of violin at the Berlin University of the Arts. She lives in Berlin and has a son. James R. Oestreich of The New York Times counted her recording of Mozart's violin concertos among the best recordings of 2016.

Awards and prizes 1987: International Violin Competition Leopold Mozart in Augsburg, First Prize 1990: Premio Quadrivio Competition (Rovigo, Italy), First Prize 1993: Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy, First Prize 1994: 1997: Gramophone Award for "Young Artist of the Year" for her first CD, the Sonata for Solo Violin and the Violin Sonata No. 1 of Béla Bartók on Harmonia Mundi 2002: Cannes Classical Award for her recording for ECM of the Concerto Funèbre of Karl Amadeus Hartmann 2010: Diapason d'Or de l'Année for her recording of the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin of Johann Sebastian Bach for Harmonia Mundi 2012: Gramophone Award for Best Chamber Recording for her recording of the violin sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven with pianist Alexander Melnikov for Harmonia Mundi 2012: Echo Klassik Award for her recording of the violin sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven with pianist Alexander Melnikov for Harmonia Mundi 2012: Diapason d'Or for her recording of the violin sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven with pianist Alexander Melnikov 2013: International Classical Music Awards for her recording of the first three Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin of Johann Sebastian Bach for Harmonia Mundi 2016: International Classical Music Awards for her recording of the violin sonatas of Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Albert Dietrich with pianist Alexander Melnikov for Harmonia Mundi 2017: Gramophone Award for Best Concerto Recording and Recording of the Year for her recording of the violin concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini for Harmonia Mundi