Pauline Sachse

Biography:        

With her versatility and expressive playing, Pauline Sachse has been a part of the international music scene for many years. She has performed with ensembles such as the Armida and Modigliani Quartet, as well as with Sabine Meyer, Jörg Widmann, Isabelle Faust, Janine Jansen, Carolin Widmann, Harriet Krijgh, Lauma Skride, and Martin Helmchen. As a sought-after chamber musician, she is a regular guest at festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Moritzburg Festival, the Schwetzingen SWR Festival and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. Concerts have led her to music centers such as Wigmore Hall London, Vienna Concert House, Rudolfinum Prague, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and the Berlin Philharmonic.

In her exploration of stylistic diversity, Pauline Sachse chooses performance practice means such as gut strings, various tunings, and corresponding bows that enable a lively articulation and sound language corresponding to the spirit of the epoch. She works with composers such as Jörg Widmann, Peteris Vasks, Christian Jost, and Kit Armstrong and has participated in various premieres. She explores her very personal sound language in her own compositions.

Pauline Sachse’s broad repertoire is also reflected in her discography. In addition to works by Schumann, Brahms, Shostakovich, and Hindemith, she has also made various first recordings, such as the „Hamlet Echoes“ by Christian Jost or various early classical sonatas by Franz Benda and Giorgio Antoniotto.
In October 2023, the Hamburg-born artist took over the professorship for viola at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig. She has already held the same position from 2013 to 2019 at the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden and from 2019-2023 at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, as well as a guest professorship at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin.
Before her career as professor, Pauline Sachse was the solo violist of the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin for several years and worked as a guest in orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

She received her education at the Hanns Eisler School of Music and the Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt a.M. with Tabea Zimmermann, whose assistant she became in 2007. She continued her studies at the UdK Berlin (with Wilfried Strehle), the Yale University USA (with Jesse Levine), as well as with the Alban Berg Quartet at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Cologne.

Pauline Sachse plays a viola by Paolo Maggini (Brescia) from 1610 and a new build by Patrick Robin (2017 Angers).