Biography
A Young Star on the Violin
The standout performer of the evening was the 20-year-old violinist Julian Kainrath, who delivered a ballad by Eugène Ysaÿe and Bach’s D minor Chaconne with power, expression, and exceptional virtuosity.
Classic and Poetic
[…] Julian Kainrath’s ability to produce a rich, warm, and deep tone that tinges Grieg’s distant harmonies with a melancholic gaiety in the Allegro molto e appassionato of his third sonata. Indeed, the young violinist from Tyrol displays a rare ability to produce a full-bodied sound that he projects with great force into the farthest reaches of the medieval courtyard of the Musée de la Castre.
“Certainly, he has a unique and full-bodied sound, but it’s the musical intelligence that is capable of returning melodies to the musical phrases, filled with infinite inflections from the changing dynamics, like verses of a multi-voiced poem that constitutes the true mastery of his interpretation.”
Watch Julian’s appearance under conductor Adam Fischer with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra at the Luxembourg Philharmonie.
Winner of the Ysaÿe International Competition and recipient of the ICMA Discovery Award in 2022, Julian Kainrath is a violinist whose playing is marked by both emotional depth and technical brilliance. After making a remarkable debut at the age of 16 with Adam Fischer and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra at the Philharmonie Luxembourg, he has gone on to perform on many of Europe’s most prestigious stages.
Julian performed recitals and concertos with orchestra in Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, and the United States. Highlights included his debut in Venice at the Apollonian Halls of Teatro La Fenice; the Teatro alla Scala Museum in Milan, a performance of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin at the Ristori Baroque Festival in Verona; debuts with the Westdeutsche Sinfonia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Bari, Streicherakademie Bozen, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Orchestra Busoni, I Virtuosi Italiani, and the Innstrumenti Orchestra Innsbruck, as well as a Bach-focused project with the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn. He also undertook several tours across cities in Italy, Austria, Germany, and Belgium.
Julian Kainrath regularly performs as a recitalist. His chamber music partners have included renowned artists such as Till Fellner, Ilya Gringolts, Louis Lortie, and Roberto Prosseda.
Highlights of his 2025/2026 season include a performance with Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra at the Kursaal Merano, an appearance at the Smetana Hall in Prague with the North Czech Philharmonic, his debut at the Miami Piano Festival, and a recital tour through Italy, Austria, Germany, and Spain.
Summer festival appearances included the Engadin Festival in St. Moritz, Switzerland; the Althafen Stiftung in Berlin; the Bolzano Festival Bozen and the Tonadico Festival in Italy, the Bergerac Festival in France, the Stiftskonzerte Klassik in Austria, the Riviera di Ulisse Festival in Rome, and the Art Gallery of Sofia, Bulgary.
In 2026/2027 he will embark on an extensive tour in Italy alongside pianist Lilya Zilberstein.
At the age of 14, Julian was selected as a resident student at the 26th Verbier Festival, where he performed and studied with leading violinists such as Pamela Frank, Donald Weilerstein, and Kristóf Baráti. He later trained with Ilya Gringolts at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, performing a recital dedicated to Steve Reich alongside Gringolts.
Since age 15, Julian has maintained a dynamic performance schedule across Europe and beyond. He has appeared at festivals and venues including Settimane Musicali di Merano, Società dei Concerti (Milan), Konzerthaus Wien (Konzertzuhaus with pianist Till Fellner), Amici della Musica (Padua), Società del Quartetto (Bergamo), Jeunes Talents Festival (Cannes), Angelika-Kauffmann-Saal and Ehrbar Saal (Austria), Teatro Ristori (Verona), the Austrian Cultural Forum (Washington, D.C.), and in cities such as Bern, Marseille, Munich, and Liechtenstein.
He made his orchestral solo debut in Bolivia in 2015 at just 10 years old. The following year, he was invited to perform with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in Kyiv, and subsequently toured with the Innstrumenti Chamber Orchestra, appearing at the Haus der Musik in Innsbruck and the Kursaal in Merano. He has also performed at the Arsonore Festival in Graz, the Young Excellence in Concert series in Salzburg, and appeared in a RAI broadcast featuring works by Paganini and Bartók.
Julian studied violin with Dora Schwarzberg in Vienna and was admitted at the age of twelve into the class of Boris Kuschnir at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. Since 2023, he has been a student of Marc Bouchkov at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège in Belgium. He was a scholarship holder at the International Music Academy Liechtenstein.
Julian plays on a Michelangelo Bergonzi (1745 ca) on generous loan through the Florian Leonhard fellowship, and on a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1828) kindly loaned by a private benefactor.
