Diemut Poppen

Diemut Poppen is recognized among the most prominent viola players of her generation.
Born in Münster, Germany, she received her first violin lessons at the age of seven and performed in public two years later. She switched to the viola at an early age, and her teachers include Kim Kashkashian, Bruno Giuranna, Yuri Bashmet, Hariolf Schlichtig, George Janzer, and the Amadeus Quartet. She has performed as a soloist under the direction of Frans Brüggen, Heinz Holliger, and Claudio Abbado, and with orchestras such as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Orchestra Mozart, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, among others. She has performed with musicians such as Gidon Kremer, Leonidas Kavakos, András Schiff, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Julia Fischer, and Maria João Pires, among others.
Diemut Poppen is a co-founder of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, has served as principal viola and founding member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under the direction of Claudio Abbado, and was awarded the European Music Prize. She has founded several festivals in Germany, Portugal, and Switzerland, and is currently the artistic director of the Cantabile Festival in Lisbon and the Rigi Musiktage in Switzerland. She serves as a jury member for various international competitions, such as the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Furthermore, she is a professor of viola at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, the Detmold University of Music, and the HEMU in Sion, Lausanne.
She has recorded for various record labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Live classics, Capriccio, Teldec, Ondine, Ars musici, Tudor, and EMI. Since 2004, her repertoire has included the new concertos for viola and orchestra by Mijaíl Pletnev and Kancheli Styx, and since 2016, the new Concerto for viola and orchestra by António Pinho Vargas.