Latvian violinist Vineta Sareika has become the first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra after winning the competition. According to The Violin Channel, she is the first woman in the orchestra’s 141-year history to hold the position.
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Sareika has been playing in the Berlin Philharmonic for 10 months, but she will start her work as the first concertmaster in April this year.
The international career of Latvian violinist Vineta Sareikas, who lives in Berlin, began in 2009, when she became a laureate of the Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition. Sareika has been invited to cooperate with excellent orchestras – London Philharmonia Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Royal Flemish Orchestra, Lisbon Philharmonic Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra. She has collaborated with conductors Andri Nelson, Paul Goodwin, Gilbert Varga, Jean-Bernard Pommier and Gerard Corsten. Vineta Sareika regularly plays in famous concert halls – New York’s Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonic, Sydney Concert Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall and Osaka’s Isumi Hall. She was also concertmaster of the violin group of the Royal Flemish Orchestra.
In 2010, Vineta Sareika won the Latvian Grand Music Prize in the category “For excellent interpretation” for her performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Seasons”. Latvian Radio 3 “Klasika” named him “Instrumentalist of the Year” in 2009. She has also received an award from the Ministry of Culture of Latvia.
From 2012 to 2021, Vineta Sareika was the first violin of the world-famous “Artemis Quartet”. With the quartet, winners of many international awards, she not only performs in the most important concert halls of the world, but also creates her own special concert series at the Berlin Philharmonic.
Vineta Sareika is a professor of violin and chamber music in the chamber music class of the Berlin University of the Arts and the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels. She has given master classes at the Sydney and Melbourne Conservatories, the Royal Academy of Music in London, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, the Jerusalem Music Center and the Weikersheim International Chamber Music Course.
Vineta Sareika plays an Antonio Stradivarius violin (1683), which was put at her disposal by the Ruggieri Foundation.
