Elisabeth Kohler

The Austrian violinist Elisabeth Kohler came to Switzerland in 2007 to study at the Basel Music Academy. (Concert diploma with distinction) Since 2009 she has been a member of the Basel Chamber Orchestra. She has also played in various other orchestras, including the Mahler Youth Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Mozarteum Orchestra, La Scintilla and the Zurich Baroque Orchestra. She has been a member of the Bach Foundation St. Gallen since 2012.

Since 2017, she has also performed as a violist in chamber music concerts and as a newcomer to the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra. Even as a child, chamber music was her great passion; her teachers included Lukas Hagen and Rainer Schmidt from the Hagen Quartet. Invitations to festivals in Prussia Cove, Mozart Week Salzburg and the Britten Pears Festival followed.

She won first prize at the Raika Classic Prize Salzburg 2003 with her string trio, second prize as a soloist at the International Julio Cardona Competition 2008 and a scholarship from the Villa Musica Foundation Mainz.

Promoting children and young people means a lot to her. She organizes school concerts ("Das kleine Ich bin Ich" and "Peer Gynt"). Since 2014 she has been teaching at the St. Gallen Music School and is a founding member of the St. Gallen Youth Orchestra, where she is on the board and is the head of the viola section.

She launched the series “Laurenzen Streicht” to give students and amateurs the opportunity to make music together in the Laurenzenkirche.

She lives with her family in St.Gallen.