The young violinist Benjamin Günst, born in Kiel in 2002, is one of the most promising musicians of his generation. Having grown up in a family of musicians, he received his first violin lessons at the age of seven. After completing his A-levels and a preparatory course with Prof. Heime Müller at the Lübeck University of Music, he moved to the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin in 2021 to join Prof. Antje Weithaas’s class. He has also been taking regular piano lessons since the age of ten.

His most recent achievement is the Musikpreis der deutschen Wirtschaft (German Business Music Prize) 2026. In March 2025, he was named a prize-winner at the prestigious Deutscher Musikwettbewerb (German Music Competition). Just a few months earlier, he won several prizes at the Max Rostal International Violin Competition 2024. Furthermore, in June 2024 he received the City of Kiel’s Culture Promotion Award. In his younger years, he won several national prizes at the German Jugend Musiziert competition as both a violinist and a pianist. As a scholarship holder of many foundations, he feels a particular affinity for the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben (German Music Life Foundation), which has been supporting him for many years.

At the age of eleven, he gave his first concerts as a soloist with an orchestra. Since then, he has appeared as a guest with orchestras such as the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Kiel Philharmonic, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

He is also a keen chamber musician and a regular guest at a number of festivals, including the Heidelberger Frühling, Beethovenfest Bonn, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Brahms Festival in Lübeck and Festival Internacional de Música Pau Casals. He has already shared the stage with musicians such as Mischa Maisky, Nicholas Altstaedt, Veronika Eberle, Fabian Müller, Antje Weithaas and Daniel Hope. Together with the latter, he appeared as a duo partner on the album DANCE!, released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2024.

Benjamin Günst also drew further musical inspiration from masterclasses given by professors such as Ana Chumachenco, Vadim Gluzman, Nora Chastain and Kolja Blacher, including on several occasions as part of the Kronberg Academy.

Benjamin Günst plays a violin by J. B. Guadagnini (Milan 1756), generously made available by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.