The Soloist

Juan Manuel Gonzalez Hernandez

The violinist Juan Manuel González Hernandez born 1978 in Venezuela, began his musical education in the famous Venezuelan system of youth orchestras (El Sistema), among others with Prof. Raimondas Butvila and the French violinist Virginie Robillard. He has since played for many years in symphonic and chamber orchestras in Venezuela, Great Britain and Germany.

From the beginning he was able to gain experience in leading positions, e.g. as concert master of the ‘Orquesta Municipal de Valencia’ (Venezuela) or as assistant principal of the second violins of the Venezuelan Symphonic Orchestra.

While still in Venezuela he had the opportunity to show his musical skills as a soloist on numerous occasions, as e.g. in the highly acclaimed performance of the Max Bruch violin concerto during the First Festival of Classical Music Santander, Colombia.

In order to further his development as an artist and violinist he moved to London in 2003 to study with the renowed professors Yossi Zivoni (Royal College of Music) and Remus Azoitei (Royal Academy of Music), who became his most influential musical input. In 2005 Juan became member of the chamber orchestra Britten Sinfonia, which recently received the Royal Philharmonic Award as Best Ensemble in the UK.

In that same year he moved to Berlin with his family. Here he established an equally successful career as a musician in symphonic and chamber orchestras and as a soloist – he is member of the Deutsches Kammerorchester, holds a contract with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and plays regularly with KammerAkademie Potsdam, Ensemble Oriol Berlin and Ensemble Resonanz.

While still in London, he founded the quartet “Bolivar soloists” together with his colleagues and friends Efrain Oscher (flute), Rhodri Clarke (piano) and Simon Wallfisch (cello). The quartet performs regularly throughout Great Britain and Germany and has (with its new member Pablo Bercellini, cello) just recorded a CD with the famous Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón. for the Deutsche Grammophon which will also take the ensemble on a tour through Europe and Latin America later this year.

Another very important and successful project that Juan has been part of in the last couple of years has been the presentation and promotion of the new string instrument Viola Profonda, the tenor of the strings, by the Bolivian composer and conductor Gerardo Yañez. Juan had the opportunity and the honor to premiere the Viola Profonda in a very successful recital that took place in the chamber music hall of the Berlin Philharmony in January this year. This was the most prominent appearance of the Viola Profonda to date and showed the great enthusiasm in the public for this new instrument.