Detmold Hochschule für Musik

Thomas Christian was born in Linz in 1951 and later lived in Vienna. He began studying violin at the age of seven and performed for the first time in public only a year later. At the age of 11 he won the Austrian violin competition. He completed further violin studies under the violin teachers Theodore Pashkus in New York and Jascha Heifetz in Los Angeles. At the age of 19, he had his debut with Paganini's Violin Concerto No 1 in D Major in Carnegie Hall in New York. Since then he has been performing as soloist in almost all countries in Europe; the US as well as Asia. Christian is a regular guest of large orchestras, including the Dresden Philharmonic; Berlin Symphony Orchestra; Bamberg Symphony Orchestra; Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra; the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra; FOK Prague Symphony Orchestra; Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and Osaka Philharmonic. He has worked with conductors like Christoph von Dohnanyi; Horst Stein; Kurt Sanderling; Milan Horvat; Leif Segerstam; Paavo Berglund; Heinz Wallberg; Leopold Hager and Heinrich Schiff.

Thomas Christian has taken part in the Schleswig-Holstein Festival and the Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspielen; the Salzburg Festival; the Bruckner Festival in Linz; the Korea Festival in Seoul; the Dresden and Bregenz Festival; the Prague Spring Festival as well as the Vienna Festival and the musical programme of the Styrian Autumn Festival. He has made radio and television programmes for ORF (Austrian Radio); RAI (Italian Radio) and WDR (West German Radio); for Bavarian Radio; Saarland Radio; Norwegian Radio and Radio Hilversum.

Thomas Christian is the founder and leader of the Vienna String Quintet, which since 1986 has given concerts in Europe, South America and Japan. They have recorded several CDs including many Mozart String Quintets as well as Anton Bruckner's Quintet. He has performed in numerous "violin evenings". He regularly performs with Bruno Canino; Paul Badura-Skoda; Jörg Demus; Anti Siirala and Stefan Vladar. For 12 years, Thomas Christian has been the artistic director of the Chamber Music Festival of Schloss Tillysburg (in Upper Austria), and since 1989 the artistic director of the Schladminger Summer Music Festival. He has taught for many years at the Vienna Conservatory, and in 1999 he was appointed Professor at the Detmold University of Music.