Lena Fankhauser is a native of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. At age 12 she attended the Yehudi Menuhin School in England and studied violin. She attended the Young Artists Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with David Cerone before receiving both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School which she attended on full scholarship. Her postgraduate studies took place at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Thomas Riebl.
Ms. Fankhauser won a top prize at the Sphinx competition which led to her being featured in a PBS television documentary. She has performed throughout the world in halls including Carnegie Hall in New York, Avery Fischer and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Tonhalle in Zürich, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Vienna Konzerthaus. Additionally, she performed in several Broadway productions during her time in New York including Kiss me Kate and Into the Woods. She can be heard on numerous film scores including the track “Fallin’” from the movie All alongside Alicia Keys, and has recorded with jazz artists including Bob Belden and Joe Lovano for Blue Note Records.
In addition, Ms. Fankhauser is the founder and artistic director of the Chamber Music Festival Bad Ischl (KMF Bad Ischl, www.kmf-badischl.com) and founded also (Ch)AMBER- Association for New Chamber Music. An avid chamber musician, she participates regularly in festivals including the Carintischer Sommer, Glatt u. Verkehrt, Donaufestival, Bregenzer and Salzburger Festspiele, Styriarte and the Chamber Music Festival Laudon. She is an instructor at Camp Styria, a summer youth orchestra.
Lena Fankhauser has performed with orchestras such as the Wiener Volksoper, Camerata Salzburg, Klangforum Wien, Kontrapunkte, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna (RSO) as well as Camerata Schulz. Additionally, she has enjoyed collaborations with a variety of performers including virtuosos hang player Manu Delago, Wolfgang Puschnig, the Vienna Soul band “5/8 in Ehr’n”, Erwin Schrott, Monika Ballwein, Dir Strottern, and the Swedish jazz pianist, Jan Lundgren. She has played as a substitute in the Munich Philharmonic since 2018. Also in 2018, Ms. Fankhauser was a soloist with the Radio orchestra of Vienna fort he Hollywood in Vienna concerts at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
She is a member of the Koehne Quartet, an ensemble specializing in contemporary music. Currently, Ms. Fankhauser is engaged at the Burgtheater in Vienna, performing in Nestroy’s “Liebesgeschichten und Heiratssachen”. She is also performing regularly with the Haydn Philharmonie and U.K. based Chineke! Orchestra.
More information can be found on Fankhauser's website.