Franziska Hügel

Biography:

Franziska Hügel was born in 1999 in Bergisch Gladbach. She received her first violin lessons at the age of five and switched to viola at the age of eight. In the course of her musical education, she won first prizes at national level at the competition „Jugend musiziert“ in 2013 and 2016.

In 2013, Franziska began her studies as a young student in the class of Prof. Matthias Buchholz at the Conservatory for music and dance cologne. She finished her bachelor´s studies there in 2022. During her Bachelor´s studies she also studied at the University of music and performing arts in Vienna with Prof. Thomas Selditz within the Erasmus+ programm. She then started her master´s studies with Prof. Walter Küssner and Prof. Tabea Zimmermann at the Academy of music „Hanns Eisler“ Berlin. She now continues at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann.

Due to several masterclasses she received artistic impulses from renowned violists such as Antoine Tamestit, Roland Glassl and William Coleman. Franziska gained a lot of orchestral experiences, among others as the principle violist at the National Youth Orchestra of Germany and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. In 2022 she was a member of the Zermatt Festival Orchestra. Early on, she regularly gained chamber musical experience. Later she participated in masterclasses at Kronberg Academy, Swiss International Music Academy and Deutscher Kammermusikkurs.

Franziska currently plays a viola by Bernard Simon Fendt (London, 1820), wich she received as a prize winner at the 26th competition of the German Musical Instrument Fund (Deutscher Musikinstrumentenfond) of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.