Informations
Facts
Born in Kiel, Germany
Member since 01.09.2007
Biography
He was always fascinated by the violin, but after Philipp Bohnen, then aged five, witnessed a performance of the Christmas Oratorio in which the concertmaster held the instrument in his right hand instead of his left, the boy was so impressed that he simply had to learn to play it himself. At nine he became a pupil of Vesselin Paraschkevov, who took him on three years later as a young student at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. In 1999 he moved to the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where he studied first with Stephan Picard, later with Antje Weithaas, and in 2006 earned his diploma “with distinction”.
He then began preparing for his concert exam and became a scholar of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy, while furthering his studies in various masterclasses, including those of the International Pablo Casals Festival and the Tibor Varga Music Academy in Sion, as well as with teachers such as Viktor Libermann, Igor Ozin, Gidon Kremer and Tabea Zimmermann. Since 1995, Bohnen, a former member of the Bundesjugendorchester – the German national youth orchestra – has appeared as a chamber musician and soloist. Since 2022, he has also been involved with the orchestra as chairman of the media committee.
He has performed at the Beethoven Festival in Venezuela, and in summer 2005, at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany. He has also appeared in concert with the Lower Rhine Chamber Orchestra, the Hamburg Camerata and the Hamburg Haydn Orchestra. In 2009 he founded the Mariani Piano Quartet together with Gerhard Vielhaber, Barbara Buntrock and Peter-Philipp Staemmler, and in 2012, together with the colleagues from the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Varian Fry Quartet. As a prizewinner of the Deutscher Musikinstrumentenfonds, the musical instrument fund at the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben (German Music Foundation), Philipp Bohnen plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Milan, 1756.
Awards
Nordmetall ensemble Prize: Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (2011)
Second Prize: Violin competition Ibolyka, Gyarfas (2004)
First Prize: Bundeswettbewerb Jugend musiziert (2001)
Ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Varian Fry Quartett
Concerto Melante
Philharmonia Klaviertrio Berlin
Philharmonic Camerata
