Widjaja, Iskandar

“Iskandar Widjaja [...] emerges as a true force of nature.[...] Without in any way losing the structural focus and grip [...] he plays with a Grappelli - like fantasy and freedom,that is deeply beguiling. [...] There is no doubting the hypnotic intensity of the results, nor Widjaja’s engrossing imperativeness." The Strad, December 2011

“Iskandar’s  delivery was nothing short of spectacular, and was greeted initially with stunned silence from his awe-struck audience. Few, I doubt ,will have witnessed a classical musician of his standard, and this was something very special. His touch was almost passionate, bow movement fluid, fingering precise and his tone subtle yet stirring. “

                                                             The Jakarta Post, August 2012

The Gold Medal of the First International Hindemith Violin Competition is only                     one of the many prizes that Iskandar Widjaja has been awarded during the course of his young career. Early honors include First Prize in the German national competition “Jugend musiziert”, “Best Bach” and “Best Beethoven” sonatas in the XXI Concorso Violinistico Internazionale Andrea Postacchini ,the “Julius Junior – Young Talent” category prize awarded by Berlin’s Mayor to outstanding city personalities as well as scholarships from

the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben”.

Iskandar’s activities as a soloist have taken him to  five continents. He has performed with such ensembles as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande,

the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Berliner Camerata , the Jakarta Philharmonic Orchestra and others , and played at venues like the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Aula Simfonia Jakarta ,Guangzhou Opera House or the Tel Aviv Opera House .

Engagements for the upcoming season include the Munich Philharmonic with Conductor Christoph Eschenbach at the Bad Kissingen- Festival, Hong Kong Sinfonietta under Yip Wing-sie, and indonesias leading Orchestra ,the “Twilite Orchestra “ under Addie MS and recitals at the Rheingau Music Festival , Styriarte Graz , and Kissinger Summer.

He has concertized repeatedly at such renowned festivals as the “Kissinger Summer” (DE) , “Valdres Sommersymfoni”(NO) , “Festival de St. Prex”(CH) , “Music Festival Phnom Penh”(KH) ,Interlochen Arts Festival(US) and “Keshet Eilon”(IL) and was invited to tour South-East Asia by the Goethe Institute.

Furthermore he has played charity concerts for Haiti( “Berlin hilft Haiti”, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, released by Sony classical) or the Unicef ( Check out for children, “ An evening with Iskandar Widjaja”, Nusa Dua-Bali) and is member of “Live music now e.V.” ,an organization, which brings classical music to hospitals , homes for the disabeled or prisons.

Iskandar Widjaja received valuable artistic impulses from Dora Schwarzberg, Christian Tetzlaff, Shlomo Mintz and Ida Haendel. He has also conducted master classes at the Pelita Harapan University in Jakarta, at the  Valdres festival ,Norway and at the “Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta”(College for Music).

Being perceived like a “Pop”-phenomenon in Indonesia, his TV appearances have led his name to become “trending  topic” on social media networks such as twitter.

Born in Berlin, Iskandar began playing violin at the age of four, at first with the Suzuki method under Susan Mann. At eleven, he was accepted as an extraordinary student at the College of Music in Berlin, where he studied with Ursula Scholz and Joachim Hantzschk. Furthermore he studied at the Julius Stern Institute Berlin– the pre-college division for the highly musically gifted. After completing secondary school, he studied violin at the University of the Arts in Berlin with Prof. Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Prof. Ilan Gronich, which he completed in 2010.

His Debut CD “Bach ‘n’ Blues” was released worldwide by OehmsClassics in 2011 to great critical acclaim by press and recommendation by bavarian-, hesse-, and northgerman broadcast.

His second album , recorded with the Berliner Camerata ,is planned for release in 2013.

He plays a Franciscus Geissenhof violin from 1793.

         January 2012