Biography
Nicole Nadine Ostmann is a successful, committed German violinist. She lives for music and gives her audiences immense pleasure through her dynamism, virtuosity and enchanting stage presence.
Born in Ingolstadt in 2001 and captivated by Prof. Benjamin Schmid’s performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, she started learning the violin at the age of five. Her first teacher Alexander Konjaev spotted her remarkable talent early on and proved a source of constant encouragement to her. At the age of just nine, she won the Special Award for Emerging Talents of the Lions Club Chamber Music Competition. At ten, she made her debut with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt at the City Theatre, conducted by Ariel Zuckermann.
As a thirteen year-old Nicole became one of the youngest members of Germany’s National Youth Orchestra, where she worked with renowned soloists and conductors on concert tours worldwide. In 2016 she became a junior student in the violin class of Prof. Conrad von der Goltz at Regensburg College of Catholic Church Music and Musical Education. In 2017 she was admitted as a junior student to Prof. Olga Bloch-Voitova’s class at the College of Music and the Performing Arts, Munich. She was simultaneously taught by Wonji Kim-Ozim/Prof. Igor Ozim at the Mozarteum Salzburg Pre College. Since 2019 Nicole has been a student in the violin class of Prof. Markus Wolf at the College of Music and the Performing Arts, Munich.
Nicole has won prizes in many national and international competitions. Between 2009 and 2019 she won First Prize a total of 16 times in the “Solo Violin”, “Duo String Instrument” and “Chamber Music” categories in regional, state and national heats of the Jugend Musiziert competition, and also captured several First Prizes and Special Prizes in the Lions Club Chamber Music Competition. In 2017 she won Second Prize in the XIth Schloss Zell an der Pram International Violin Competition in Austria. In 2018 she came away from the 16th International Music Competition “Luigi Zanuccoli” in Italy with Second Prize.
Nicole has performed as a soloist with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt, with the AsamCollegium at the Organ Matinées, in the MittwochKlassik series of Wednesday concerts, with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic conducted by Prof. Christoph Adt, in the Munich Philharmonic’s children’s concerts conducted by Heinrich Klug, as well as in many other contexts. Her versatile repertoire extends from classical and contemporary music to jazz and improvisation. She also regularly treats audiences to exquisite concerts of chamber music, mainly in a string quartet and piano trio. She has performed in some of the most prestigious concert halls, such as the Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall and the Elbe Philharmonic Hall, as well as at Munich’s Residenztheater and Prinzregententheater.
At the age of thirteen Nicole participated in Gil Shaham’s masterclass as an emerging talent of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the course of her education she has also attended masterclasses by Prof. Ingolf Turban, Prof. Petru Munteanu, Priya Mitchell, Wonji Kim-Ozim and Prof. Sonja Korkeala. Others who have greatly inspired her musical training include Prof. Igor Ozim, Prof. Ana Chumachenco, Ning Feng, Mischa Maisky, David Garrett and Prof. Lena Neudauer.
Nicole plays a violin by Carlo Antonio Testore, Mailand around 1720, provided on trust by the German Foundation for Musical Life. She has been teaching Violin at Munich’s International School of Piano and Music since late 2019. In April 2019 she was awarded scholarships by the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Live Music Now Munich and the Theodor Rogler Foundation for young talented musicians. She has discovered a special affinity for working with children and senior citizens, in partnership with her pianist Kaori Kashimoto. Together with Susanne Kapfer (Soprano) and her pianist as a trio they bring the joyful "Wiener Kaffeehausmusik" closer to their audience.
