»I prefer direct contact with other musicians through my instrument. Although I now have a more comprehensive picture of a composition than I did 20 years ago, I have no wish to exert control over a performance. The best results come when each musician feels invited to take part in an interpretation, the communication taking place through the musical flow.«

Tabea Zimmermann began to play the viola at the age of three and while still at school won several 1st prizes in the ›Jugend musiziert‹ competition. She studied at the Conservatory of Freiburg with Ulrich Koch. In 1983, she won 1st prize at the ›Maurice Vieux‹ International Viola Competition in Paris, for which she was awarded a superb instrument made by Étienne Vatelot, which she has played on her concert tours ever since.

In 1987, Tabea Zimmermann was appointed as Germany’s youngest professor to the faculty of the Saarbrücken Music Academy and since 2002, she has taught at the ›Hanns Eisler‹ Academy of Music in Berlin.

Her artistic achievements have garnered her numerous awards, including the Rheingau Music Prize and two ECHO Klassik awards. As ›Artist in Residence‹ she has, for example, given guest performances with the Philharmonie Cologne, the Philharmonie Luxembourg and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

She is also a Foundation Board member of the Hindemith Foundation in Blonay/Switzerland and Chairwoman of the Board of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. Tabea Zimmermann has had close ties to The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen for many years playing in the Arcanto Quartet together with the Kammer­philharmonie’s concertmaster Daniel Sepec.

Since 1993, Daniel Sepec has been concertmaster with The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen, with which he also appears regularly as a soloist. He has recorded two CDs with the orchestra featuring works by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as Antonio Vivaldi’s ›Four Seasons‹, on which he also directed himself.

He has also appeared several times as guest concertmaster with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (including a tour with Claudio Abbado), Camerata Academica Salzburg and the Ensemble Oriol Berlin. As a soloist he has performed with the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood, the Vienna Academy of Music under Martin Haselböck and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées under Philippe Herreweghe.

His CD recording of H. I. F. Biber’s Rosary Sonatas received the German Record Critics’ Award. Daniel Sepec is the only musician to date to have recorded a CD on a rediscovered violin formerly belonging to Ludwig van Beethoven together with pianist Andreas Staier. As a member of the Arcanto Quartet, he has made recordings of the Mozart, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Bartók and Dutilleux string quartets, as well as Schubert’s String Quartet.

From September 2010 until July 2014, he was professor at the School of Music in Basle. In 2014, he was offered a professorship at Lübeck University of Music.