Kolja Lessing

About Kolja Lessing

Kolja Lessing, one of the most versatile musicians of our time, has given decisive impetus to the music world by combining interpretational and research work with his skills as both violinist and pianist. Thanks to his efforts, for instance, Georg Philipp Telemann's Violin Fantasias and Johann Paul Westhoff's Violin Suites have been rediscovered for the concert stage along with many significant piano works by twentieth-century composers. Internationally acclaimed CD recordings provide evidence of a varied approach to repertoire ranging from the Baroque era to the present day, encompassing both standard works and rarities. Kolja Lessing's worldwide concert and recording activities as a violinist and pianist include collaboration with leading orchestras and conductors like Yakov Kreizberg, Nello Santi and Lothar Zagrosek as well as widely diverging chamber-music projects. In recognition of his efforts on behalf of ostracized composers he was awarded the Johann Wenzel Stamitz Special Prize in 1999, in 2008 he was awarded the German Critics’ Prize for Music. In 2010 the TV-documentary “Ferne Klänge” on his efforts for music in exile had its first broadcast. In 2015 he was honored with the Otto-Hirsch-Award by the city of Stuttgart, in 2020 with the Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
www.kolja-lessing.de