Симоне Цграгген

The violin that gave her quartet its name — the 1668 "Golden Bell" Stradivari — passed to the Museo del Violino in Cremona in 2019, and Simone Zgraggen has played a Matteo Goffriller of 1692 since. Born in Altdorf in 1975, she began the instrument at five and took every degree that followed with distinction: with Alexander van Wijnkoop at the Lucerne Conservatory and the Basel Music Academy, then with Ulf Hoelscher at the Karlsruhe Hochschule, working further with Rainer Kussmaul, Thomas Zehetmair, Zakhar Bron, Ana Chumachenco, Igor Ozim, Giuliano Carmignola and Chiara Banchini. The Brahms and Lions prizes at the Carl Flesch Academy in Baden-Baden came in 2001, first prize in the competition of the German music academies in 2002, the Danioth Foundation's principal award in 2006. She taught at the Zurich Conservatory between 2001 and 2012 and has been professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg since 2012. She has led the Basel Sinfonietta from the first desk since 2010 and was elected concertmaster of the Zuger Sinfonietta in 2022; her chamber playing belongs to the Schubert Quintett and the Golden Bell Quartett.