Julia Fischer

Julia Fischer (born 15 June 1983) is a German violinist and pianist.
Biography.
Julia Fischer, born in Munich, is of German-Slovakian parentage. Her mother came from the German minority in Slovakia and emigrated from Košice in Slovakia to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972. Her German father moved in the same year from Eastern Saxony to West Germany.
In fall 2004 the label PentaTone released Julia Fischer's first CD: Russian violin concertos with Yakov Kreizberg and the Russian National Orchestra.
Julia Fischer began her studies before her fourth birthday, when she received her first violin lesson from Helge Thelen; a few months later she started studying the piano with her mother Viera Fischer. Fischer said, "my mother's a pianist and I wanted to play the piano as well, but as my elder brother also played the piano, she thought it would be nice to have another instrument in the family. I agreed to try out the violin and stayed with it." She began her formal violin education at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg. At the age of nine Julia Fischer went to the Munich Academy of Music. 
Among the most prestigious competitions that Julia Fischer has won are the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition under Lord Yehudi Menuhin's supervision, where she won both the first prize and the special prize for best Bach solo work performance in 1995 and the Eighth Eurovision Competition for Young Instrumentalists in 1996, which was broadcast in 22 countries from Lisbon. In 1997 Julia Fischer was awarded the “Prix d‘Espoir” by the Foundation of European Industry. She recently had the opportunity to play Mozart's own violin in the room in which he was born at Salzburg to honour his 250th birthday.
Her repertoire (from Bach to Penderecki, from Vivaldi to Shostakovich), contains over 40 works with orchestra and about 60 works of chamber music.
Instrument.
At the moment she plays on a Guadagnini (See link below) made in 1750 which she bought in summer 2004.
For four years since 2000, she had been using a Stradivarius, the 1716 Booth, on loan from Nippon Music Foundation. Before she had the Strad, she played a Guarneri del Gesù and a Gagliano. She uses two bows, one a copy of the Heifetz Tourte by the Viennese maker Thomas Gerbeth, the other a French bow which she uses when she needs to send the Tourte bow away to be rehaired.
Prizes and honours.
Julia Fischer has won five prizes for her violin playing and three prizes for her piano playing a.o. at "Jugend musiziert". She won all eight competitions she entered.
Recordings.
After releasing ten CDs for PentaTone her eleventh CD was released by Decca.
Influences.
She considers Maxim Vengerov, Evgeny Kissin, and Glenn Gould to be among her greatest influences. 
Family.
Mother: Viera Fischer, maiden name Krenková, born in Nové Zámky Slovakia, pianist
Father: Frank-Michael Fischer, a university-educated mathematician