Eliane Menzel
violinist
Eliane Menzel is an award-winning German violinist based in New York City. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Joel Smirnoff. Her principal teachers include Pinchas Zukerman, Patinka Kopec, and Katrin Scholz.
Eliane began her musical training at the pre-college division of the Academy of Arts Bremen and was a long-time member of the German National Youth String Orchestra, serving as concertmaster and touring extensively across Europe while participating in professional CD productions. She recorded Saint-Saëns’ Rondo Capriccioso in a broadcast production with NDR Hamburg, which was transmitted nationally, and was awarded First Prize at the International Violin Competition “Szymon Goldberg” as well as the NDR Cultural Prize.
She was selected for the prestigious Pinchas Zukerman Young Artists Program in Ottawa and later continued her studies in the Zukerman Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music. Her honors include the DAAD Scholarship, the Gluck Fellowship, the PAAX GNP Fellowship in Mexico, and First Prize at the Ann & Charles Eisemann International Young Artists Competition for Strings.
Eliane was featured in a nationwide television segment on ARD, Germany’s leading public broadcasting network.
As a soloist, she has appeared with orchestras including the Oldenburg State Orchestra, Oldenburger Schlossorchester, Kammersinfonie Oldenburg, MainKammerorchester Frankfurt, Ensemble Bremen–Frankfurt, Hanse Symphony Orchestra, and the Richardson Symphony Orchestra. She has performed at prestigious venues including Weil Hall at Carnegie Hall and has given regular performances at the German Consulate General in New York and the German Embassy in Ottawa.
Her recent artistic highlights include a live recording on Texas Public Radio with Ensemble Nerina, performances as soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, and the world premiere of Light and Finnecky at Carnegie Hall. Her international performance activity spans the United States, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Canada, Mexico, Israel, Switzerland, and Bulgaria.
Eliane is a member of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Players Orchestra (Concertmaster), Orquesta Filarmónica de las Américas, and the PAAX GNP Festival Orchestra in Mexico. She is also the founder and first violinist of her own string quartet, with which she performs actively across Europe and the United States.
In addition to her performance career, Eliane is the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Schlosskonzerte Neuenburg concert series in Germany, presented annually at Neuenburg Castle. The series features repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary works, including world premieres of newly commissioned compositions.
She has participated in major international festivals and academies including the Geneva String Academy, Domaine Forget, Keshet Eilon, Allegra Festival, the Heifetz International Music Institute, and the Castleman Quartet Program, studying with artists such as Rachel Podger, Rainer Honeck, Silvia Marcovici, Igor Ozim, Hagai Shaham, Ilya Kaler, Itzhak Rashkovsky, and Vadim Gluzman.