"Her sound has passion, grit and electricity but also a disarming warmth and sweetness that can unveil the music’s hidden strains of lyricism"   (New York Times)

Isabelle Faust has a fine reputation as a violinist of serious intent, who is committed to playing works of all styles and periods. She is at home exploring period instrument performance with collaborators such as Concerto Köln and Andreas Staier and at the same time is a most ardent advocate of contemporary repertoire. She has premiered concertos by Werner Egk and Thierry Lancino, A Child Reliquary by Danielpour, Messiaen’s Fantasie and works dedicated to her by Jörg Widmann. Her repertoire also includes works by Morton Feldman, György Ligeti, Liugi Nono and Giacinto Scelsi. In 2009 she will premiere violin concertos dedicated to her by Michael Jarrel and Thomas Larcher.

Isabelle Faust came to international recognition at an early age when she won the Leopold Mozart Competition in Augsburg in 1987. She went on to win first prize at the Premio Paganini in Genoa in 1993 and in 1997 she was awarded the coveted Gramophone "Young Artist of the Year" Award. Her career has subsequently included engagements with prestigious international orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk Orcehstra, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony and the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra. She has worked with renowned conductors such as Marek Janowski, Mariss Jansons, Paavo Berglund, Gary Bertini, Ingo Metzmacher and Marko Letonja.

Isabelle Faust is equally passionate about chamber music and regularly participates in recital tours and at international chamber music festivals. The esteemed musicians with whom she enjoys close musical partnerships include Andreas Staier, Alexander Melnikov, Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff and Tabea Zimmermann.

In 2004 Isabelle gave the German premiere of André Jolivet’s violin concerto with Marko Letonja and the Munich Philharmonic. She later recorded the work to international acclaim for Harmonia Mundi. Her recordings reflect her unusually extensive musical range and encompass chamber and concerto repertoire from Bach to Hartmann. Her disc of works by Lutoslawski, Szymanowski and Janacek was hailed as "one of the best classical CDs of 2003" by the New York Times, whilst her recording of Hartmann’s Concerto Funèbre received the "Cannes Classical Award" 2002. Her most recent release is a recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Prague Philharmonia under the direction of Jiri Belohlàvek, paired with a performance of the Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata with Alexander Melnikov.

Isabelle Faust studied with Christoph Poppen and Dènes Zsigmondy and has been on the teaching staff at the Universität der Künste in Berlin since autumn 2004. She plays the "Sleeping Beauty" Stradivari from 1704, which has been kindly lent to her by the L-Bank Baden-Württemberg.