Nils Mönkemeyer appointed professor of viola at the Eisler
The internationally renowned violist Nils Mönkemeyer has been appointed to the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin for the summer semester 2025. He currently teaches as a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and will take over his viola class at the Eisler in April 2025. We are delighted to welcome him as a new colleague to our teaching staff.
With Prof Mönkemeyer, the school is gaining one of the world's most successful artists in his field for instrumental training. He has also earned a high reputation as a university lecturer: At the beginning of December, the German University Association (DHV) awarded Nils Mönkemeyer the ‘University Teacher of the Year 2024’ prize - the first ever to be awarded to an artist and musician after virologist Christian Drosten, historian Michael Wolfssohn and marine biologist Antje Boetius. The association honoured him for his exemplary social commitment, which he knows how to combine with his passion for music and artistic teaching. In 2016, Prof Mönkemeyer launched the chamber music festival ‘Classical Music for All’ together with Caritas Bonn in order to build bridges with music and make it accessible to those who are disadvantaged in life.
Artistic brilliance and innovative programming are the hallmarks with which Nils Mönkemeyer has made a name for himself as one of the most successful violists. His programmes include original literature, his own arrangements and world premieres. As a soloist, he performs with top international orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Tokyo Symphony and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Nils Mönkemeyer works with conductors such as Andrej Boreyko, Sylvain Cambreling, Reinhard Goebel, Elias Grandy, Pietari Inkinen, Vladimir Jurowski, Joana Mallwitz, Andrew Manze, Cornelius Meister, Mark Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Markus Poschner, Kristiina Poska, Michael Sanderling, Markus Stenz and Simone Young.
He is a regular guest at major festivals such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Boswiler Herbst. He gives numerous concerts with the Julia Fischer Quartet. Since 2011, he has taught as a viola professor at the Munich University of Music and Theatre. He plays a viola by Philipp Augustin.
Nils Mönkemeyer (born 1978) began his musical education on the violin and was a junior student at the Bremen University of the Arts. He switched to the viola and studied from 1997 at the Hanover University of Music with Christian Pohl, from 2000 at the Munich University of Music and Theatre with Prof. Hariolf Schlichtig and with Prof. Veronika Hagen at the Mozarteum. He completed his studies in Munich in 2006 with the Konzertexamen. He has received various scholarships and sponsorship awards, including a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation and has won prizes at numerous international competitions.
Prof Mönkemeyer has been appointed to the Eisler in succession to Prof Tabea Zimmermann, who moved to Frankfurt am Main in 2023.