Interview
When and where was your first concert with the MCO?
November 2017 in Torres Vedras, a cute little town in Portugal. We were staying in a hotel with a view of the most beautiful shore and beach.
What do you need to feel at home whilst on tour?
Playing music together makes me feel kind of at home, wherever we are. Except that I need sparkling water, which – luckily – is possible to get almost everywhere in the world nowadays.
What is the best thing about being a musician?
Thatʼs easy to answer: My job is my passion and I get money for living my passion. What job could be better?
What do you do before a performance?
A 15-minute nap, warming up properly, a banana.
The first piece of music you fell in love with?
Dvořák 9! I was listening to this piece on my Discman on a longer car ride and couldnʼt handle this strong feeling of emotions. It was such a great experience to play the symphony in the same year in youth orchestra.
BIOGRAPHY
Hildegard Niebuhr was born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1991 and received her first violin lesson at the age of 5. From 2008 she studied at the Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere in Weimar, graduating in 2011, before beginning her undergraduate studies with Thomas Brandis in Lübeck later that year. Since 2015 she has studied with Daniel Sepec in preparation for completing her masters degree in 2020.
She has had much experience playing in many different ensembles and orchestras ever since she was a child, including a period as concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester from 2015–17. She became a member of the first violin section of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in summer 2019 following her time as an academist at the Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
She receives regular invitations to play with other orchestras, such as The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, MDR Leipzig, Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Ensemble Resonanz and the Philharmonisches Orchester der Hansestadt Lübeck, in addition to her work in chamber music with various different ensembles. She has received inspiration from teachers such as Igor Ozim, Uwe-Martin Haiberg, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Matthias Wollong and Heime Müller, and played as a concertmaster under notable conductors including Herbert Blomstedt, Ton Koopman, Kent Nagano, Helmuth Rilling, Daniel Harding, Philippe Jordan and Christoph Eschenbach.
