Kristian Winther is widely recognised for his ability to perform as a virtuosic violin soloist and as an energetic and brilliant chamber musician, seeking musical challenges performing classic, contemporary and rare works.
As violin soloist, Kristian has appeared with the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Christchurch and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Auckland Philharmonic, Gruppo Montebello and Orchestra Romantique. He has performed under the batons of conductors including Jessica Cottis, Olli Mustonen, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Marcus Stenz, Oleg Caetani and David Robertson.
In the role of leader / director he has performed as Guest Concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Melbourne and Western Australian Symphony Orchestras, and as leader/director of ACO Collective.
A devoted chamber musician, Kristian was formerly violinist in the TinAlley String Quartet, winning first prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, which was followed by tours of the USA, Canada and Europe. He has also performed chamber music with Anthony Romaniuk, Daniel de Borah, Anne Sophie von Otter, Angela Hewitt, Steven Osborne, Anna Goldsworthy, Richard Tognetti, Brett and Paul Dean, Konstantin Shamray, Hue Blanes and Joe Chindamo. As an original musician of the Play On series since 2016, Kristian has performed music from the 16th to the 21st centuries at diverse venues including an underground car park in Collingwood and a nightclub in Berlin. Other recent solo / chamber music highlights include performing all of JS Bach’s unaccompanied sonatas and partitas at the Canberra Festival in a single day, the complete Schumann String Quartets in one concert on raw gut strings, and Reger’s monumental violin concerto at the Orlando Festival in the Netherlands.
Committed to performing new repertoire, Kristian has performed the world premiere of Olli Mustonen’s Sonata for Violin and Orchestra (with the composer conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), as well as the Australian premieres of works by Louis Andriessen, Knussen, Kurtag, Salonen, Rihm, Widmann, Kelly-Marie Murphy, and numerous Australian composers. Kristian also gave the Australian premiere of John Adam’s concertante work for string quartet and orchestra Absolute Jest with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian and New Zealand premieres of Brett Dean’s violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing.
Kristian performs on a violin crafted by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, 1859, on generous loan from UKARIA Cultural Centre.