Susanne von Gutzeit was born in Bochum (Germany) in 1982 and began making music at the age of three. She received her first violin lessons from her father, Reinhart von Gutzeit, later studying the violin under Igor Ozim, Boris Kuschnir and Lukas Hagen, and the viola under Veronika Hagen and Thomas Riebl and chamber music under Rainer Schmidt. She supplemented her studies by participating in the Perlman Music Program and taking courses in chamber music with Thomas Brandis, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Walter Levin. She also expanded her musical horizons by branching out into the areas of period performance (with Reinhard Goebel) and Jazz (with the Modern String Quartet). Central to her music-making is the performance of chamber music, to which she has shown a keen dedication since her early childhood. As a member of the Clara Schumann Trio, the Kilviria Quartet, the Hyperion Ensemble (among others), she has performed at such festivals as the Salzburg Festival, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Rheingau Festival, EuroArt Praha and Ferrara Musica, as well as appearing at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Library of Congress in Washington. In addition, she is an avid proponent of contemporary music. In 2004 and 2005, she attended the Lucerne Festival Academy, playing orchestral and ensemble works from the 20^th and 21^st centuries with Pierre Boulez and members of Ensemble Intercontemporain. She has participated in numerous world premières and was invited to perform at the Lucerne Festival, the Bregenzer Festspiele, the "Dialoge" and Biennale in Salzburg, at the steirischer herbst festival, the Donaufestival, the Gustav Mahler Music Weeks in Toblach and the Festival Imago Dei. She has been a member of the Austrian Ensemble for Contemporary Music (oenm) since 2006. Susanne von Gutzeit made her debut as a soloist in 1994 at the Altstadt Herbst in Dusseldorf, going on to appear with such orchestras as the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchsetra (SWR) under Peter Falk, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under Philippe Entremont, the Bruckner Orchester Linz, the Banat Philharmonic (Romania) and with Harmonices Mundi at the Bruckner Festival in Linz. She has undertaken concert tours of Japan and the USA, and has recorded Debussy's Violin Sonata with pianist Cornelius Meister for the Berlin Classics label. She plays a 1750 violin from the workshop of Nicolaus Gagliano in Naples, and a modern viola by Patrick Robin. Performed at the Festival in 2011.