Florian Donderer is first violin of Signum Quartet, one of the most adventurous and outstanding string quartets of today, as well as longstanding concertmaster of The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen. He is a versatile musician, highly valued as chamber musician, soloist, concertmaster and conductor, collaborating with distinguished musicians such as Paavo Järvi, Steven Isserlis, Lars Vogt, Viktoria Mullova, Elisabeth Leonskaja and his wife and brother in law, Tanja and Christian Tetzlaff.

Florian Donderer is frequent guest at major festivals such as Bergen Festspielen, Beethovenfest Bonn, Festwochen Berlin, Schwetzinger Festspiele and is core member at ›Spannungen‹, one of Germany’s most prominent music festivals, founded by Pianist Lars Vogt. Concerts with Signum Quartet have taken him to international podia from Berlin‘s Boulez-Saal and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg to London’s Wigmore Hall and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Florian Donderer is especially renowned as an artistic leader, directing orchestras from the concertmaster’s desk. Top Chamber Orchestras such as Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Bern, invite him as director and soloist. Last year‘s recording ›Haydn and Bach Cello Concertos‹ with Steven Isserlis, Florian Donderer and The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen has received a Grammy Nomination. He made his debut as conductor with Ensemble Oriol and Christiane Oelze at Berlin Philharmonic Hall, followed by a CD recording with Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen and Tanja Tetzlaff. He has conducted among others the Kammerakademie Neuss, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim and Festival Strings Lucerne. This year Florian Donderer has taken on the position of artistic director of the chamber music festival of the city of Rottweil, one of Germany’s longest standing festivals. With his wife, Tanja Tetzlaff he is curating a chamber music series at Sendesaal Bremen.

He plays a violin built by German Violinmaker Peter Greiner in 2003 and bows by Nico Plog from Antwerp.

Estonian conductor and Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi has been Artistic Director of The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen, his only German orchestra, since 2004. One highlight of the collaboration were the celebrated concerts of the Beethoven cycle, which received critical acclaim worldwide. Järvi received numerous awards for the recordings, including the ›Echo Klassik‹ as ›Conductor of the Year‹ and the prestigious ›Annual Prize of the German Record Critics‹.

Following the Beethoven project, he and the orchestra tackled the symphonic works of Schumann and Brahms, which received similarly enthusiastic reviews. Paavo Järvi is also Principal Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Advisor to the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Järvi Summer Festival in Pärnu, Estonia, and since 2019/20 Artistic Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He regularly makes appearances as guest conductor with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras, the Staatskappelle Dresden and the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago and the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, he was named ›Artist of the Year‹ by the renowned British magazine Gramophone and the French magazine Diapason. In 2019, he received the ›Opus Klassik‹ as ›Conductor of the Year‹.