Maximilian Bratt

When I was five years old, I had my first lessons at the piano. After about five lessons I told my parents that I had learned enough so there was no need for more lessons. A few years later I realised that there was, after all, a thing or two still to be learned, so I started studying the piano again.

Shortly thereafter I began learning the violin, having been infected by the joy of a friend I saw playing. In the following years I had training with great teachers in Norway, Finland and Poland. After graduating from secondary school in Stockholm I left my native Sweden and continued my musical education at the Royal College of Music in London and later at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

In my playing I look for what makes the music speak the most, doing the composer justice and serving the music. I have had the fortune of studying both the piano and the violin at a professional level, which has given me the opportunity to study a large repertoire, getting to know works in-depth from two different perspectives.

Since I grew up with chamber music at home, I find it natural that I spend most of my time playing in small ensembles. The chamber music partners I have worked with include Saskia Giorgini, Eva Karpe, Andrej Kasik, Gregor Urban, Alba Ventura, Vida Vujic as well as my string quartet, the Lerchenfeld quartet.

I love discovering different kinds of music. As an example, I have taken part in several projects with the Pandolfis consort, recording five CDs on gut strings as first violin with the Austrian label Gramola with music by Haydn, Mozart and Vivaldi. I also took part in a project resulting in a recording for Naxos of exclusively female composers, most of them contemporary.

Another passion of mine is teaching. I see it as a privilege to follow a person’s development together with the instrument and to witness someone growing, both as a musician and as a human being. For this reason, I am very happy to work at Le Conservatoire in Vienna, where I teach students of all ages on both instruments.

I’m currently playing a violin by Pierre Silvestre from around 1825.