Ulrich Knörzer first began playing the violin at the age of nine, but because his teacher was keen to introduce his pupils to chamber music and Ulrich was the biggest, he soon was obliged to take over the role of viola player. Three-time winner at the German national competition »Jugend musiziert«, he studied from 1980 to 1987 with Rainer Moog at the Cologne Hochschule and with Karen Tuttle at the Juilliard School in New York (1988/89), rounding off his training in master classes including those of Max Rostal, Sándor Vegh and Yuri Bashmet. Along with his orchestral activities, Ulrich Knörzer appears regularly as a chamber-music player. Since 1992 he has been a member of the Scharoun Ensemble of Berlin. The violist, who is deeply interested in languages, has since 1999 been a professor of viola at Berlin’s Universität der Künste. Performed at the Festival in 2004, 2008.