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The University of Music and Theatre Munich (HMTM) has appointed Sarah Christian as professor of violin. She will begin in the role on 1 October 2025.
From 2019 until this year, Christian also served as professor of violin at the State University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart. She has been first concertmaster of the Oslo Philharmonic since 2024 and concertmaster at the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen since 2013.
In a statement, Christian said of the appointment:
’I’m really looking forward to working with the students. I want to be there for them and do my best. I want to encourage them to follow their own personal musical path and to dare to find their own voice and make it heard – especially in today’s society. And I hope to make a lot of chamber music together.’
Christian studied with Igor Ozim at the University Mozarteum Salzburg and with Antje Weithaas at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, where she was also assistant professor from 2013 to 2016.
She has won various awards including second prize, audience award and the Special Prize of the Munich Chamber Orchestra at the 2017 ARD International Music Competition, as well as other prizes at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, International Johannes Brahms Competition Pörtschach and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition in Berlin. In 2008 she received the Yehudi Menuhin Medal and the Best String Player of the Year award at the University Mozarteum Salzburg.
As a soloist, Christian has performed with the Camerata Salzburg, Auckland Philharmonia, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and at Carnegie Hall with the Bavarian State Orchestra.
Christian also regularly performs as a chamber musician at festivals such as SPANNUNGEN: in Heimbach, the Schwetzingen SWR Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. In Augsburg, she founded her own chamber music series alongside German cellist Maximilian Hornung. She also initiated the Franz Ensemble, with which she plays rarely performed works. Her first album with the ensemble won the Opus Klassik 2020 award.
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