Monia Rizkallah

Monia Rizkallah
was born into a family of Moroccan origin in Bordeaux. She received her first violin lessons at the age of seven at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux. She later studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and graduated with the first prize for violin and chamber music. During this period she already taught the violin in Paris and discovered her passion for teaching. When playing as a substitute in the Orchestre philharmonique de Paris she also discovered her curiosity and love of orchestral playing. She won various competitions and scholarships, with which she was able to continue her studies at the Mozart-Academy in Warsaw and at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin. In Berlin she received lessons from Prof. Thomas Brandis (leader of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan). In this period she was invited to play with the Berlin Philharmonic as a guest.
Very soon she won her first professional engagement at the Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin; since 2002 she has been leader of the second violins and coach of the orchestral academy of the Deutsche Oper.
She also played in the world-famous orchestra of the Bayreuther Festspiele for several years. Following the invitation by Daniel Barenboim she played and taught in the West-Eastern-Divan-Orchestra. Furthermore she has been invited as a guest player in renowned orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatsoper in Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover and Munich as well as the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Italy and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia. She has played under conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Christian Thielemann, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Daniele Gatti or Nikolaus Harnoncourt. She has toured Asia, North and South America, most European countries, New Zealand and Africa as soloist and chamber musician. In addition she has also given concerts at the most important music festivals such Lucerne, Salzburg, London, Buenos Aires, Berlin and New York.