Markus Däunert (violin)
Markus Däunert co-founded and was co-leader of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for many years.
As guest leader, Markus has been invited to play with orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, Ensemble Resonanz and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.
Markus is also a founding member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, where he played for many years under Claudio Abbado. With a passion for educational programmes for young musicians, he founded the Aldeburgh Strings as part of the Britten Pears Young Artists Program of which he was both artistic director and director for many years. For 13 years he taught at the Frankfurt University of Music and he devotes a large amount of time to work for music and social projects such as the El Sistema Venezuela, Neojiba Brazil and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas.
Markus has performed in concerto halls far and wide. A particularly intensive collaboration connects him with Claudio Abbado, whom he assisted for many years, notably in the preparation of projects and recordings for the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. He has also worked with conductors such as Daniel Harding, Robin Ticciati, Tugan Sokhiev, Sir Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink, Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Kurt Masur and amongst others. During his years as a regular guest artist with the Berliner Philharmoniker, he played under the greatest conductors of our time.
Markus’s album recordings include the world premiere recording of Giacinto Scelsi’s chamber music, recordings as director of the Aldeburgh Strings, ardeTrio’s album “Tango Concertante Vol.1” and the debut album “Buenos Aires Resonances” of the Massa Trio.
As a chamber musician, Markus has appeared with the following musicians: Alexander Lonquich, Christian Zacharias, Marta Argerich, Gianluca Cascioli, Maria João Pires, Bertrand Giraud, Bruno Canino, Nicolas Altstaedt, Bruno Delepelaire, Claudio Bohorquez, Danusha Waskiewicz and Thomas Demenga.
Markus regularly works as a consultant and coach for high profile youth orchestras including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra.
In 2019 he founded the ardeTrio and in 2020 he founded the Massa Trio together with Omar Massa and Kim Barbier. Both trios are represented by Reinicke Artists in Berlin.
Markus plays on the “Apollo” violin made by luthier, Christoph Götting.