Judith Wagner
cellist
Judith Wagner, born in Salzburg, is a highly awarded cellist and prizewinner of national and international competitions. In 2018, she won 1st prize at the International Beethoven Competition in Hradec and received all four special prizes, including the City Prize for the best Beethoven interpretation.
Her musical work spans solo, chamber music, and orchestral activities. Since 2022, she has been the principal cellist of the Festival Chamber Orchestra Zurich, and in 2024, she assumed the same position in the Camerata Hanseatica in Lübeck. Additionally, she has performed with orchestras such as the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Camerata Castello, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Baroque ensemble Il Capriccio. Since 2024, she has been performing regularly with the Philharmonic Orchestra Freiburg.
Beyond her concert activities, Judith Wagner is deeply committed to music education. Even during her studies, she worked as a tutor at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart and the University of Music Freiburg. Since 2022, she has been teaching at the Baden Music School in Switzerland, where she creates her own illustrated teaching materials for her youngest students.
In 2021, she was invited, together with Ryo Yamanishi, as an "Ensemble in Residence" at the 14th Hagnauer Klassik am Bodensee. That same year, she was honored as one of the top three concert exam students at the University of Music Freiburg, which led to a live radio recording on Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
She has been awarded various scholarships, including those from the Society of Friends of the Stuttgart University of Music (2014), the Zaczkowski Foundation (2020), and the German Music Council (2022).
Her studies took her to some of Europe's most renowned music academies, including the Mozarteum Salzburg (Susanna Ehn-Riebl), the State University of Music Stuttgart (Conradin Brotbek), the Zurich University of the Arts (Roel Dieltiens), and finally, the concert exam program at the University of Music Freiburg (Jean-Guihen Queyras). She completed all her degrees – Bachelor, two Master’s, and the Concert Exam – with highest honors and top marks.
Important artistic influences came from Gustav Rivinius, Xenia Jankovic, Louise Hopkins, Heidi Litschauer, Roglit Ishay, Christine Busch, Jörg Halubek, Thomas Riebl, Silvia Simionescu, Claire Genewein, and Monika Beer. Her approach to the Baroque cello has been shaped through work with Kristin von der Goltz, Christoph Dangel, Jonathan Pesek, and Martin Zeller.
Currently, Judith Wagner plays a cello by Antonius Thir from the year 1747.