Nils Mönkemeyer

Artistic brilliance and innovative programming are the trademarks that have earned Nils Mönkemeyer a reputation as one of the world’s most successful violists, dramatically raising the profile of his instrument.

His programmes run the gamut from rediscoveries and first recordings of original 18th-century viola literature to contemporary repertoire and arrangements of his own. This is also reflected in his CD recordings with Sony Classical, which have repeatedly won awards and been celebrated by the international press. The most recent example, the album “Dance for Two”, released in spring 2023 with recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger, brings together works from over a thousand years of music history, mostly in their own arrangements for this special instrumentation.

In the 2024/25 season Nils Mönkemeyer performs at major festivals, such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Festival der Nationen, the Mozartfest Würzburg and Festpiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, as well as the Inselkonzerte Herrenchiemsee, a fes4val which Nils founded with pianist William Youn and is now in its sixth season. He returns to the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Boswil Herbst, which is under the artistic leadership of Julia Fischer and Benjamin Nyffenegger, with whom he performs regularly in the Julia Fischer Quartet. In October he embarks on a three year residency with the Philharmonische Gesellschad Bremen, with projects to include a performance with the Animato Quartet, plus chamber music with Carolin Widmann, Julian Steckel and William Youn. Other special chamber music projects this season include trio concerts with Sabine Meyer and William Youn, recitals with Dorothee Oberlinger, a project with the Ensemble Resonanz, and a fascina4ng programme with the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, which he will play-direct, including works by Hildegard von Bingen, Bach, Dowland, Vivaldi and Telemann.

As a soloist, Nils Mönkemeyer’s highlights this season include the première of Dieter Ammann’s Viola Concerto with the Sinfonieorchester Basel, as well as a performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Viktoria Mullova and the Philharmonia Zurich. Further highlights include appearances with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Elias Grandy in a performance of Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher, and with the Amsterdam Sinfonieja, directed by Candida Thompson in works including Majhias Pintscher’s Janusgesicht, both in the Netherlands and in Bremen.

Nils Mönkemeyer is a frequent collaborator with conductors such as Andrej Boreyko, Sylvain Cambreling, Constantinos Carydis, Nicholas Collon, Reinhard Goebel, Elias Grandy, Pietari Inkinen, Vladimir Jurowski, Joana Mallwitz, Andrew Manze, Cornelius Meister, Mark Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Markus Poschner, Kristiina Poska, Michael Sanderling, Clemens Schuldt, Markus Stenz, Mario Venzago and Simone Young. He performs as a soloist with distinguished orchestras such as Zurich Tonhalle, London Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Vienna Radio Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Berne Symphony, Orchestra della svizzera italiana, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester and Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Hamburg Philharmonic, Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, SWR Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Munich Chamber Orchestra and Berliner Barock Solisten.

Nils Mönkemeyer has been a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich since 2011. He plays a viola made by Philipp Augustin.

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