Axel Strauss

The first German artist to ever win the international Naumburg Violin Award in New York, Axel Strauss has been equally acclaimed for his virtuosity and his musical sensitivity.

Mr. Strauss made his American debut at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and his New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1998. Since then he has given recitals in major cities across North America. In 2007 he was the violinist in the world premiere of “Two Awakenings and a Double Lullaby”—written for him by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis. Mr. Strauss frequently performs at various music festivals in the US and abroad. Since his European debut in Hamburg in 1988, Axel Strauss has been heard on concert stages throughout Europe. Mr. Strauss studied at the Music Academies of Lübeck and Rostock with Petru Munteanu. In 1996 he began working with the late Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School and became her teaching assistant in 1998. He has also worked with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Felix Galimir and Ruggiero Ricci, and at the Marlboro Music Festival with Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida and Andras Schiff. Mr. Strauss has been residing in North America since 1996. He maintains a busy performance schedule and serves as Professor of Violin and Chair of the String Area at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal. Before moving to Canada he was Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.