Christian Kaufmann

Born in Waiern, Carinthia, he learnt to play the piano at the age of five, but changed to violin when he was nine. Having passed his A-levels in 1985, he started to study viola in the same year with Karl Stierhof at the University of Music and Applied Arts in Vienna. In 1989 he subsequently changed to study with Peter Ochsenhofer at the Privatuniversity Konservatorium Wien.
During this time he was already working as a substitute at the Vienna Volksoper, at the Vienna State Opera, well as at the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Vienna Radio-Symphony Orchestra. From 1989 to 1993 he was under contract at the Vienna Volksoper. He has been a violist at the Vienna Symphony Orchestra since 1993. From 1998 to 1999 he studied Viola d’amore as an associate student at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and occasionally performed as a soloist in Bach´s ‚Johannes Passion’ in concerts of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.