DANIEL AUNER — VIOLINIST
Full biography

Daniel Auner has been internationally acclaimed as a violinist since his youth and is deeply rooted in the rich musical tradition of his native Vienna. The “master violinist” (Die Presse), winner of the KlassikPreis Österreich and the Eugène Ysaÿe Competition, appears as a guest with renowned orchestras and at major festivals worldwide, often as the leader of his string quartet.

Musical curiosity and a spirit of enquiry drive his work far beyond the purely violinistic. His complete recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin grew out of an in-depth study of Baroque rhetoric and the theory of the affects, which Auner pursued together with the musicologist Dr Dagmar Glüxam. The production was realised with the support of the University Mozarteum Salzburg and released by ARS in early 2022.

This source-critical approach also informs his commitment to forgotten and to new music. Auner has given the premieres of several violin concertos, among them works by Kurt Schwertsik and Ruben Zahra, and is currently devoting himself to the 1942 violin concerto of his great-great-aunt Mary Dickenson-Auner, which he is deciphering from the manuscript and preparing for performance.

He has performed with orchestras such as the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, the Bergische Symphoniker and the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss — with conductors including Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Marta Gardolinska, Josep Caballé-Domenech, Theodor Guschlbauer, Lee Mills, Ben Palmer, Peter Kuhn and Peter Guth. His concerts take him to halls such as the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Wiener Musikverein, the Konzerthaus Berlin, Suntory Hall Tokyo, the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

In September 2019 Daniel Auner performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Marta Gardolińska, in a tour that took the programme to Weymouth Pavilion on 12 September and to Chichester Cathedral on 14 September, with rehearsals at Lighthouse, Poole. The performances were promoted in association with the Austrian Cultural Forum London. It was for these concerts that he presented Beethoven’s alternative solo part, taken from the composer’s manuscript — the ossia readings Beethoven left standing beside the familiar text.

The Strad described his playing as “technically impeccable”. With the Vienna Mozart Trio he has also appeared in Ireland, at Thomastown Concert Hall in County Kilkenny.

Auner studied with Christian Altenburger, Igor Ozim and Boris Kushnir; he is a graduate of the University Mozarteum Salzburg, the mdw — University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. He trained as a conductor over four years with Conrad Artmüller, Kapellmeister at the Volksoper, with a particular focus on Mozart’s operatic repertoire, alongside group tuition with Joji Yuasa in Vienna.

In 2013 Daniel Auner founded the Auner Quartett in Vienna, winner of first prize at the Eugène Ysaÿe Competition. With the quartet and the Vienna Mozart Trio he appears regularly in European concert halls. As a chamber musician he also performs in flexible formations with partners such as Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Julia Hagen, Patrick Demenga, Jan Vogler, Dennis Russell Davies, Cristian Budu, Ingrid Fujiko Hemming, Pavel Gililov, Robin Green and Hannfried Lucke.

His thirteen published recordings have appeared on the labels ARS Produktion, Gramola Vienna, Capriccio, Coviello and Preiser Records. The CD Dialog mit Mozart (Gramola) was named CD of the Month by The Strad; another of his recordings was awarded CD of the Year 2022 by Austrian radio Ö1. Radio and television productions include the opening of the Festival de Radio France in Montpellier, the production Caprice Viennois at the invitation of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in Leipzig, and concert recordings for ORF, Radio Klassik, Radio France Musique, Radio Clásica de RNE and TV Globo Brazil.

Since 2018 Daniel Auner has taught as a professor of violin and chamber music in Vienna. At the JAM Music Lab Private University he heads the string department and is professor of violin and chamber music at the Friedrich Gulda School; from the winter semester of 2026 he also heads its Contemporary Music degree programme. Since 2020 he has served on the board of the International Fritz Kreisler Society, which organises the Fritz Kreisler Competition held every four years. Since 2024 he has taught as professor of violin at the Summer Academy of the University Mozarteum Salzburg.

For many years Daniel Auner served as a cultural ambassador for Austria within the New Austrian Sound of Music programme of the Foreign Ministry. His appearances have taken him to countries including Brazil, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Belize, Tunisia, Iran, Kuwait and South Africa.

Daniel Auner plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Milan 1752, from the collection of fine string instruments of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. For over fifteen years he has developed strings together with Thomastik-Infeld, appearing as an ambassador of the Viennese string manufacturer.

Biography as conductor