ANNETTE-BARBARA VOGEL
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Annette-Barbara Vogel’s rich international performing career has featured her as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in over 35 countries across 6 continents.
Considered one of the finest German violinists of her generation, she is renowned for her “authoritative and highly sensitive performances,” and “formidable technique, stunning musicality, and stage presence that transmits to orchestra and audience alike.” Gramophone Magazine has lauded “Vogel’s perfect intonation,” while Classical CD Review has proclaimed her “the most ideal exponent a composer could hope for.” Her exceptional musicianship has been recognized by numerous prestigious solo prizes and scholarships across both Europe and North America.
At eleven years old, Vogel was the youngest student ever accepted to the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen, where she later completed her solo and chamber music diplomas “summa cum laude.” Her early training as a violinist included several years of study at Amsterdam’s Sweelinck Konservatorium under legendary Dutch violinist, Herman Krebbers. Already a professional touring musician at age sixteen, Vogel was selected to study for one month at the Menuhin Academy under Sir Yehudi Menuhin. With her piano trio, Trio Alani, she later studied chamber music under Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) at the Musik-Akademie Basel, before enrolling in the Artist Diploma program at Los Angeles’ University of Southern California. Vogel completed an Artist Diploma “summa cum laude” under Dorothy Delay at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory and was later chosen to perform the Brahms Violin Concerto under the baton of Keith Lockhart at a Gala concert honouring Delay’s seventy-fifth birthday.
Vogel’s prolific recording career as soloist and chamber musician has produced more than fifteen commercial albums under Avie Records, Bluegriffin Recordings, Cybele Records, Eroica Classical Records, and Harmonia Mundi Germany. Her 2011 release of “Französische Komponistinnen” received the British IRR Outstanding Recording Award.
As a champion of lesser-known works, Vogel has met high critical praise for her many ground -breaking recordings of works for the violin by composers such as Hans Gál.
Her CD of violin sonatas by Ethel Smyth, Elfrieda Andrée, and Mel Boni has been released on the UK-based Toccata label in August 2021 and was listed in the top 10 of Naxos Sweden within the first week of the release.
Previous appointments include an artistic residency with the “Monticello Trio” at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and violin professorships at both the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen and at the University of Iowa. Currently a Full Professor, Vogel accepted her appointment at Western University in 2004, where she continues to serve as the head of the string area and is in high demand as a pedagogue and chamber music coach.
Annette-Barbara is the 2020 recipient of the Forest City London Music Award in the solo classical instrumental category.