Masterclass Viola
Prof. Lena EckelsCourse repertoire: freely selectable
Masterclass and individual lessons
Technique and interpretation
Audition training
Course start: Saturday, March 28, 2026, 3:00 PM
Course end: Thursday, April 2, 2026, after breakfast
€980.00 course fee/active for professionals
€930.00 course fee/active for students
€680.00 course fee for passive participation
class
Lena Eckels discovered the viola through chamber music at the age of 10 and has never returned to the violin since. The special timbre of the muted sound and the closeness to the human voice still fascinate her today. Growing up in a musical household, she initially received lessons from Charlotte Hauser in Detmold and studied with Barbara Westphal in Lübeck and Lars Anders Tomter in Oslo after graduating from high school. She won first prize at the Brahms Competition in Pörtschach and the GWK Förderpreis and was a scholarship holder of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation “Live music now” together with her duo partner Simone Wolff. She received artistic inspiration from Kim Kashkashian, Nobuko Imai and Yuri Bashmet, among others, and was selected for the Verbier Festival Academy in 2007.
794 / 5.000
Lena Eckels was a member of the Amaryllis Quartet for 10 years, winning first prize and the Grand Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne and the finalist prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani in Italy, among other awards. She has performed regularly with the quartet at major concert series and festivals, including the Lucerne Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, the Chelsea Music Festival/NYC, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Vienna Musikverein, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, and the Melbourne Recital Centre. In 2012, the quartet was awarded Germany’s most highly endowed chamber music prize, the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Chamber Music Prize. The CD “White,” featuring string quartets by Haydn and Webern, won the 2012 ECHO Klassik Award for Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year. Since 2018, Lena Eckels has been a professor of viola at the Lübeck University of Music and Performing Arts and is a member of the German-Israeli Else Ensemble (www.else-ensemble.com). She plays a viola by Haat-Hedlef Uilderks after Gasparo da Salo.