Lena Neudauer, born 1984 in Munich, Germany, began playing the violin at the age of three and at the age of ten she performed her first concert with an orchestra. As a young student, she entered the Mozarteum University in Salzburg in a class led by Helmut Zehetmair at age eleven. She then continued under the instruction of Thomas Zehetmair and later on with Christoph Poppen. Through the years she also received significant ideas from Felix Andrievsky, Ana Chumachenco, Midori Goto, Nobuko Imai and Seiji Ozawa.
She received tutelage from Christoph Poppen, Helmut, and Thomas Zehetmair. Lena constantly strives to broaden her knowledge and embrace diverse musical genres, such as through her involvement with Boulez and the “Lucerne Festival Academy” and her exploration of historically informed performance practices. Lena Neudauer has a particular fondness for Mozart’s music, which she studied diligently.
In 2010, at the age of 26, Lena Neudauer was appointed as a violin professor at the Hochschule für Musik Saar, and since 2016 she has held a professorial position at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.
In 2023, Lena Neudauer and Julia Fischer furthered their musical and personal friendship, which had been in existence since their early childhood, through an excellent musical undertaking. The two violinists from Munich delivered a stunning performance of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto grosso No. 1. This masterpiece was originally composed for Gidon Kremer and Tatiana Grindenko back in 1977. The piece can now be enjoyed alongside the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the Kammerakademie Potsdam.
Her debut CD on the Hänssler Classic label appeared in May 2010, presenting the complete works for violin and orchestra by Robert Schumann together with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern under Pablo Gonzalez. The CD was awarded the prestigious International Classical Music Award (ICMA) for the best concerto recording 2011. In 2013, she released a Ravel chamber music CD together with Paul Rivinius (Piano) and Julian Steckel (Cello). Lena Neudauer’s recording with the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken (2014) was dedicated to Mozart’s violin concertos including cadenzas of the soloist. 2018 her recording of Mendelssohn concerto d minor and double concerto (with Matthias Kirschnereit) was praised by Fono Forum as “fresh and spritely”.
Her latest CD (cpo 2019) with Beethoven violin concerto op. 61 and Romanzen 1&2 under Marcus Bosch with Cappella Aquileia was praised as reference recording (Pizzicato, Fono Forum, Crescendo) and has been awarded the Supersonic prize. “There is no doubt that Lena Neudauer is an interpreter with a strong personality, technically brilliant, who fully respects the spirit of this work.” (Pizzicato)
In the field of chamber music, Lena Neudauer has collaborated closely with Julian Steckel, Julia Fischer, Sebastian Klinger, Matthias Kirschnereit, Herbert Schuch, Lauma Skride, and Nils Mönkemeyer. Her versatility as a chamber musician is evident in successful string projects with Tobias Koch.
In the soloist quintet alongside Silke Avenhaus, Wen Xiao Zheng, Sebastian Klinger, and Rick Stoijn, Lena Neudauer is committed to unique projects. They performed Schubert’s Trout Quintet in conjunction with the new composition “Ein Forellenteich” (a collaborative creation by Ferran Cruixent, Osmo Tapio Räihälä, Gerald Resch, Johannes Schachtner, Dejan Lazic). The Kultursekretariat NRW funded the project, which was published on CD by CAvi.
Lena Neudauer has played alongside orchestras like the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken/Kaiserslautern, the MDR Sinfonieorchester, the Münchener Kammerorchester, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Academy of St. Martins in the Fields, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra St. Petersburg, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Petersburg, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Collegium Musicum Basel and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors such as Dennis Russell Davies, Mariss Jansons, Hannu Lintu, Mario Venzago, Wojciech Rajski, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Bruno Weil, Marcus Bosch, Howard Griffiths, Christoph Poppen, Ari Rasilainen, Juri Gilbo, Antonello Manacorda, Andreas Spering, Dirk Kaftan, Daniel Cohen, Nabil Sheheta and Pablo Gonzalez.
Lena Neudauer performs on a Lorenzo Guadagnini from 1743 and a Philipp Augustin from 2015.