Simone von Rahden, Viola (Associate)

Born in Karlsruhe, Simone von Rahden enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician, soloist, orchestra musician and teacher.

She studied viola at the Musikhochschule Freiburg with Prof. Wolfram Christ and at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann, where she passed the concert exam in 2011 with distinction. She received further prizes and scholarships at national and international youth competitions, from the Baden-Württemberg Cultural Foundation, the German Foundation for Music Life, the Jütting Foundation in Stendal and from Claudio Abbado, who passed on the prize awarded to him by the Düsseldorf Kythera Foundation to young up-and-coming musicians.

While still a student, her first engagements took her to orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Orchestra Mozart in Bologna. She has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since 2009 and has also been involved in the Spira mirabilis project since 2007. She was also principal violist in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment from 2016 to 2021. Simone von Rahden has performed as a soloist with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, the South Westphalia Philharmonic, the English Haydn Orchestra, the Hamburger Camerata, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne. She appears regularly as a chamber musician throughout Europe, and in recent years has performed more frequently with period instrument ensembles such as the Quartetto Bernardini, the Promena ensemble and her string quintet “Spunicunifait”.

Simone von Rahden has been a visiting professor for viola at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin since 2014 and has also been teaching viola, orchestral studies, literature and chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock since October 2020. From October 2023 she will take over the professorship for string chamber music at the hmt Rostock.