Barbara Buntrock took her first violin lessons at the age of five; it was only just before entering
university-level studies that she discovered her love for the viola, its deeper tones and timbres.
She studied at several music universities: in Cologne with Werner Dickel, in Lübeck with Barbara
Westphal, at the Juilliard School in New York City with Heidi Castleman, and in Berlin with Tabea
Zimmermann and Lars Anders Tomter.
From February 2009 to December 2010, Barbara Buntrock was Principal Violist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus
Orchestra but decided to devote herself instead to solo appearances and chamber music.
In 2015, she was appointed Viola Professor at the Robert Schumann University of Music in Düsseldorf.
Buntrock plays a viola made by Antonio Mariani in Pesaro, ca. 1650, an instrument that previously
belonged to legendary violist Lionel Tertis.
Her most recent recordings on CD include Walter Braunfels’s Scottish Fantasia (on the Capriccio
label) and the viola concertos of Christian Westerhoff (cpo). In contrast to her musical activities, her
two children have been the leading voice in Barbara Buntrock‘s life since 2021.