Verena Stourzh

Verena Stourzh, born in Vienna, studied at the Vienna Conservatory of Music with Prof. Alexander Arenkov. In 1989 she obtained the state diploma with authorization to teach with distinction, and in 1993 she received her concert diploma also with distinction. She attended master classes with Dora Schwarzberg, Ernst Kovacic, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Detlef Hahn, Rainer Kussmaul, Erich Höbarth and Ingrid Seifert (baroque violin).

Verena Stourzh was member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Claudio Abbado (1987/88), leader of first violins of „Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich“ (1990-1993), since then she is member of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

With the „Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich“ she played the solo part on the occasion of the world premiere of the violin concerto by Paul Kont.

In Stourzh’s artistic career Chamber music has always played a major role. She has performed with ensembles like the Wiener Mozart Trio, Soloists of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn-Philharmonic and Soloists of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. As violinist of the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt (1998 - 2010) and the TrioVanBeethoven (since 2011) Verena Stourzh is performing intensely in Austria and abroad. Concerts have taken her to the Vienna Musikverein, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt the Cheltenham Festival in England, to London (Kings Place), Paris (Louvre Auditorium), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Edinburgh, Basel (Stadtcasino), Bonn (Beethoven Festival), Milan, Prague, Budapest, Moscow, New York (Metropolitan Museum) and Washington (Library of Congress), as well as to Australia, South Africa, Canada, Latin America, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China. In 2009, the Haydn commemorative year, she went on a worldwide tour and played 157 concerts on all continents. With the Brasilia Symphony Orchestra she performed  Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Brasilia. During this year Verena Stourzh played a violin by Antonio Stradivari, Cremona 1714, "ex Smith-Quersin", loaned to her by the Austrian National Bank.

Verena Stourzh has given  master classes in many countries, e.g. at the University of Glasgow, the Cork School of Music, the Conservatoire Montréal, the University of Syracuse, Gettysburg College, the Kiev Conservatory and the Academy of Music in Tirana. 

During one year she tought as a substitute at the Konservatorium City of Vienna University. 

On the CD market Verena Stourzh has presented around 45 CD – productions, including the complete recordings of the piano trios of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the worldwide first complete recording of 429 Scottish and Welsh folksongs arranged by Joseph Haydn (with Lorna Anderson, soprano, and Jamie MacDougall, tenor). These recordings have won international renown. In the field of contemporary music, recordings were presented of the projects “Bachmann vertont” and “DedicatedToHaydn” as well as portraits of the composers Tibor Nemeth, Jaan Rääts and Wolfram Wagner.                                                                                                                     

Verena Stourzh plays a violin of Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi, 1770.