"A Song Without Words"
"Hartmut Ometzberger has an incredibly beautiful and clear singing tone which I cannot forget."
“Listening to Hartmut Ometzberger was like listening to music from heaven.”
“I fell in love with Hartmut’s very fine violin playing in a relatively short time. I’ve listened to many violinists, but his playing is very special — so subtle, not this focus on volume and brilliance but on the depth of sound.”
“Hartmut Ometzberger’s passion to music and violin playing, especially his continuous search for the finest nuances in sound, are both fascinating and inspiring to his surroundings.”
“He has the exact qualities of leadership required for the position of concertmaster. He has the strength and warmth of personality; he plays on a very high level; and he is perceptive and is able to communicate skillfully. He has a sophisticated and established technique which enables him to transmit musical ideas with great effectiveness.”
HARTMUT OMETZBERGER is a leading Austrian violinist. Music critics have praised his performances as an ‘exceptional joy’, ‘bewitching’, ‘a musical revelation’ and ‘a song without words’. Being a violinist of very diverse talents, he is equally accomplished and internationally respected as a chamber musician, orchestral leader and teacher. As the renowned violinist Emanuel Hurwitz said, “He is a violinist of extraordinary musical talent. At this time of technical perfection, he is one of the few violinists today who truly has something to say.”
By the age of 9, he was performing in public regularly. At 14-years-old, he made his concerto debut performing with members of the La SCALA orchestra in Milan and was invited for a special performance for HRH Princess Anne. He has performed Concertos by Haydn, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Elgar, Szymanovski and Mendelssohn and has performed in many prestigious halls all over Europe (Concertgebouw, Bösendorfersaal, Wiener Hofburg, Schloss Schwetzingen, Prinzregententheater, Gasteig, Grote Kerk/Leiden/Den Haag, Carrolus Borromeus Kerk/Antwerpen, the English Church/ Amsterdam) and the United States. He is regularly invited to perform at Austrian embassies and Austrian Cultural Forums worldwide. Dutch television has broadcast performances in the Netherlands, and in 2010, Hartmut was featured in a documentary by renowned Japanese filmmaker Ryo Nishiyama. On New Year’s Day 2020 he was also featured in a documentary for the ORF.
Hartmut Ometzberger formed a unique Duo with dramatic soprano Diana Jacklin (www.dianajacklin.com) entitled The Diva and the Fiddler (www.dianajacklin.com/thedivathefiddler). They are the only voice and violin duo in the world and have created unique programs combining the expression of the violin and voice, juxtaposing vocal and instrumental works. Additionally, they arrange and perform works for violin and voice alone. Their extraordinary range of expression and color has led several composers to write music for them. New York’s TIME OUT described them as an ‘eclectic duo’. In addition to their concert series in Vienna, they are the directors of the chamber music festival KlangFEST Bad Ischl. They have furthermore performed in New York, Boston (broadcast worldwide), Phoenicia Festival NYC, the Shalin Liu Performance Centre, London, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Styria and Slovenia. In 2016, they will perform in Vienna, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Antwerpen, Boston, Maine, London, Chichester and Oxford.
As concertmaster, Hartmut Ometzberger has worked with great conductors, e.g. Sir Colin Davis, Gennady Roshdestvensky, Christoph Campestrini, Adam Fischer and Michael Hofstetter. He is currently concertmaster of the Oper Klosterneuburg and is regularily invited to lead the Beethoven Philharmonie and will lead the Vienna Festival Symphony Orchestra on tour in China.
As an impassioned chamber musician, his talents have led him to work together with Diana Cummings, Christophe Pantillon, Rafael Wallfisch, Garfield Jackson, Thomas Enman, Prunella Pacey, Kristin Okerlund, Steve Tees and Martin Outram.
For several years, Hartmut Ometzberger has been involved in testing new strings for Thomastik-Infeld.
In 2013 he and Diana Jacklin founded and serve as the directors of ChamberMusicWeeks. ChamberMusicWeeks (www.chambermusicweeks.com) are very successful chamber music courses for students and amateurs which take place in Graz, Austria. These courses are a very innovative program and bring together an international faculty of highly regarded musicians to work together with the participants in a stunning and supportive environment.