Monika Baer
Monika Baer is working as baroque violinist, concertmaster and university lecturer.
From 1999-2004 she was concertmaster of the Basel Chamber Orchestra with conductors such as Christopher Hogwood, Philippe Herreweghe and Giovanni Antonini. She is a founding member and one of the concertmasters of the Orchestra "La Scintilla" based at Opernhaus Zürich, which regularly works with personalities such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Marc Minkowsky, William Christie and Cecilia Bartoli. She is performing since years in the orchestra of the Bach-Stiftung St.Gallen with conductor Rudolf Lutz.
As an ensemble and chamber musician, she has made highly acclaimed recordings, including various CDs with "La Scintilla". The last two recordings of early baroque chamber music from England were recently released on the renowned ECM label. She has also been developing musical and literary concert programmes for many years, which she performs in small theatres in Zurich.
Since 2023 Monika Baer is Head of Strings at the Zurich University of the Arts.
As a lecturer in baroque violin and chamber music at the ZHdK, she is passing on her knowledge of music history to students for more than 25 years. She also acts as an expert (e.g. Radio SRF2 Kultur, Music Commission of the City of Zurich) and has shaped the profile of the Forum for Early Music Zurich as a board member since 2003.
Monika Baer has a distinguished university education. She studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Genève with Robert Zimansky, where she obtained teaching and soloist diplomas. As first violinist of the Ortys Quartet, she studied in Basel with Walter Levin and Hatto Beyerle, made several recordings of modern and contemporary music and won numerous prizes, including at the Migros Competition and the International Chamber Music Competition in Trapani (I). This was followed by years of intensive study of early music, which led her to John Holloway at the Dresden University of Music, among others.
Renate Steinmann
Renate Steinmann has proven artistic and pedagogical experience as a baroque violinist, baroque violist, concertmaster and program designer.
She has been concertmaster of the Bach Foundation St. Gallen (director: Rudolf Lutz) since 2006 and has been responsible for the development of the string section since its foundation. Renate Steinmann shares artistic and personal responsibility for the profile of the internationally recognized large-scale project of the complete edition of Bach's vocal works on CD. She also works together with Rudolf Lutz and Stefan Ritzenthaler (sound engineer Gallus Media) in the recording studio during the post-production of the CD/DVD series (editing and sound balance).
In February 2014, the CD recording of the St. Matthew Passion (studio production) was released with her as first concertmaster. Since 2006 collaboration with renowned musicians such as Katharina Arfken, Michi Gaigg, Peter Harvey, Klaus Mertens, Sibylla Rubens, etc.
She has been concertmaster of the Zurich Baroque Orchestra since 2006 and took over as artistic director from 2014 to 2017.
She recorded a CD of works by Dowland with John Holloway for ECM, which was released in 2014 and won first prize at ICMA 2015. On this CD she can be heard as a baroque violist.
In addition to her diverse concert activities as a guest concertmaster (for example with Gli Angeli de Genève, conducted by Stephan Mac Leod), Renate Steinmann has been a music teacher at the cantonal school in Wettingen (AG) since 1999. There she teaches violin, viola, chamber music and orchestral playing and guides talented young people towards professional studies. In Wettingen, she directs the local concert cycle 'Wettinger Sommerkonzerte', which actively promotes cultural education for young people and finds formats suitable for the target audience. In Zurich, she teaches baroque violin and baroque viola as part of the continuing education program of the Werkstatt für alte Musik Zürich.
Renate Steinmann has a sound university education and is internationally networked. She completed her studies in violin (Nora Chastain) and viola (Wendy Enderle) at the Musikhochschule Winterthur Zurich with concert diplomas in both subjects (corresponding to Master Performance). She then took lessons with Elisabeth Wallfisch (London) for several years and deepened her study of sources and playing practice in the baroque and classical repertoire.