Friederike Starkloff is one of the most outstanding violinists of her generation, known for her profound and multifaceted playing. Born in Chemnitz in 1990, she began her training at the age of five with Wolfgang Marschner and Ariane Mathäus at the Pflüger Foundation in Freiburg. She later studied with Rainer Kussmaul in Freiburg and with Antje Weithaas at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where she served as her assistant from 2017 to 2022.
Throughout her career, Friederike Starkloff has achieved numerous successes at renowned international competitions. In 2009, she won second prize at the 7th Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition in Augsburg, which paved the way for her debut CD with José Gallardo featuring Mozart’s violin sonatas. Further significant
awards soon followed: third prize at the 7th International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig (2010), third prize at the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris (2014), and third prize at the Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki (2015). In 2017, she recorded a CD of violin duos by Eugène Ysaÿe and Wolfgang Marschner together with violinist Myvanwy Ella Penny.
At the age of 24, she became the youngest concertmaster of a German radio orchestra when she assumed this position with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover. Since the 2023–24 season, she has continued her career as concertmaster of the Basel Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to her orchestral commitments, she performs regularly as a soloist and is a sought-after chamber musician, appearing with artists such as Markus Becker, Jan Vogler, Leonid Gorokhov, Daniel Schnyder, and Gerrit Zitterbart. Her latest CD, released in 2023 on Genuin Classics, featuring sonatas by Schulhoff, Janáček, Debussy, and Antheil, was
highly praised by the music press.
Since October 2024, Friederike Starkloff has been leading her own class as a professor of violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. Starting in September 2026, she will take on the same role at HSLU Lucerne Music.
She plays a violin by Meike Finckh from 2021, as well as a violin by Julia Maria Pasch from 2025.