Julia Fischer was born in 1983, in Munich, Germany. She began studying the violin at age 3, and at 4 she began simultaneous studies on the piano with her mother.
Young Julia’s first advanced studies on the violin came a few years later in Augsburg, Germany at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory; at 9, she began studying at the Munich Academy of Music. In 1995 Fischer won first prize at the International Yehudi Menuhin Competition, where she also captured a special prize for best performance of a J.S. Bach solo work.
Ms. Fischer first heard the 24 Paganini Caprices when she was eight years old at a children’s music course at which Austrian violinist Thomas Zehetmair performed: “I thought that these are the most difficult compositions that a violinist can play. When I was 10, I learned my first Caprice – number 17 – and I felt like I was a real, true violinist.”
Julia Fischer’s playing is always highly musical, and shows us her terrific technical capabilities. Her interpretation is sensitive, thoughtful, and carefully executed to underscore variations in dynamics, and expression of different colors. Here is a video of Ms. Fischer playing the 24th Caprice by Paganini:
