Curriculum Vitae
Iskandar Widjaja […] emerges as a true force of nature.
[…] Without in any way losing the structural focus and grip […] he plays with a Grappelli-like fantasy and freedom,
that is deeply beguiling. […] There is no doubting the hypnotic intensity of the results, nor Widjaja’s engrossing imperativeness
The Strad, December 2011
Iskandar’s delivery was nothing short of spectacular,
and was greeted initially with stunned silence from his awe-struck audience.
Few, I doubt, will have witnessed a classical musician of his standard,
and this was something very special. His touch was almost passionate, bow movement fluid,
fingering precise and his tone subtle yet stirring.
The Jakarta Post, August 2012
The Gold Medal of the First International Hindemith Violin Competition is only one of the many prizes that
Iskandar Widjaja has been awarded during the course of his young career. Early honors include First Prize
in the German national competition “Jugend musiziert”, “Best Bach” and “Best Beethoven” sonatas in the
XXI Concorso Violinistico Internazionale Andrea Postacchini ,the “Julius Junior—Young Talent” category prize
awarded by Berlin’s Mayor to outstanding city personalities as well as scholarships from the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben”.
Iskandar’s activities as a soloist have taken him to all five continents. He has performed with such ensembles as the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the
Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Berliner Camerata , the Jakarta Philharmonic Orchestra and others at venues like the
Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Aula Simfonia Jakarta or the Tel Aviv Opera House.
He has concertized repeatedly at such renowned festivals as the “Kissinger Summer” (DE), “Valdres Sommersymfoni” (NO),
“Festival de St. Prex” (CH), “Music Festival Phnom Penh” (KH), Interlochen Arts Festival (US), and “Keshet Eilon” (IL)
and was invited to tour South-East Asia by the Goethe Institute.
Furthermore hes has played charity concerts for Haiti (“Berlin hilft Haiti”, Berlin Philharmonic Hall,
released by Sony classical), or the Unicef (Check out for children, “An evening with Iskandar Widjaja”,
Nusa Dua-Bali) and is member of “Live music now e.V.” and organization, which brings classical music to hospitals,
homes for the disabeled or prisons.
Iskandar Widjaja received valuable artistic impulses from Dora Schwarzberg, Christian Tetzlaff, Shlomo Mintz and Ida Haendel.
He has also conducted master classes at the Pelita Harapan University in Jakarta, at the Valdres festival,
Norway and at the “Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta” (College for Music).
Being perceived like a “Pop”-phenomenon in Indonesia, his TV appearances have led his name to become “trending topic”
on social media networks such as Twitter.
Born in Berlin, Iskandar began playing violin at the age of four, at first with the Suzuki method under Susan Mann.
At eleven, he was accepted as an extraordinary student at the College of Music in Berlin, where he studied with
Ursula Scholz and Joachim Hantzschk. Furthermore he studied at the Julius Stern Institute Berlin—the pre-college
division for the highly musically gifted. After completing secondary school, he studied violin at the University
of the Arts in Berlin with Prof. Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Prof. Ilan Gronich, which he completed in 2010.
His Debut CD “Bach ‘n’ Blues” was released worldwide by OehmsClassics in 2011 to great critical acclaim by press
and recommendation by Bavarian, Hesse, and Northern Germanny broadcast.
His second album, recorded with the Berliner Camerata, is planned for release in 2013.
He plays a Franciscus Geissenhof violin from 1793.
January 2012
