About

Violinist Ariadne Daskalakis is critically acclaimed for her expressive sound and her stylistic versatility.  At home on the international stage, she has performed in venues ranging from Boston's Jordan Hall and Gardner Museum and New York's Carnegie Recital Hall to the Gulbenkian Center in Lisbon, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, the Rudolfinum Prague, the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, the Dortmund Konzerthaus, the Munich Herkules Hall and the Berlin Philharmonie and the Athens Megaron. She has appeared as soloist with the Munich BR Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music Berlin, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Athens National State Orchestra, the Tirana Radio Orchestra, Concerto Köln and the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra. Recently she has concertized with the Kölner Akademie, the Cologne Sinfonietta and the Bach Virtuosi Festival Orchestra. In the dual role of leader and soloist Ariadne Daskalakis has collaborated with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Orchestra and the Cologne Chamber Orchestra. She collaborated closely with Ensemble Oriol Berlin and more recently with the New Rhine Chamber Orchestra. 

A specialist in performance practice ranging from baroque to modern, she was hailed by German MDR Radio as a “universal specialist” for her recording of Vivaldi Concerti with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra on the label Tacet. Benjamin Dunham of Early Music America wrote of her Biber Sonatas: "With this release, Daskalakis propels herself into the front rank of historical violinists."

Ariadne Daskalakis won prizes at the International ARD-Munich Competition and the St. Louis Symphony Strings Competition, as well as from the Mozart Society Dortmund, the Harvard Music Association and Framingham State University, which awarded her the first Christa McAuliffe Medal. An avid chamber musician, she led the Manon Quartet Berlin for 10 years. She performs regularly as recitalist or, on baroque violin, with her Ensemble Vintage Köln, with which she recorded the complete Handel Sonatas for Naxos, the complete Rosary Sonatas by Biber for the label BIS and Bach's "Musical Offering" for Tacet/Eigenart. She has also released on BIS the complete violin works by Franz Schubert, together with Paolo Giacometti on fortepiano and with the Kölner Akademie under Michael Alexander Willens. This set, on BIS, unique partly thanks to the choice of original instruments, has received glowing reviews from the Strad magazine, Klassik heute (10/10 and CD of the week) and Diapason (5/5).

Numerous further recordings document the broad spectrum of her repertoire and the rich depth of her musical experiences. These include the Complete Violin Sonatas by Handel, Fauré and Raff, Violin Concerti by Tartini and 20th century works by Lutoslawski, Janacek and Szymanowski (on the labels Naxos, Carpe Diem and Tudor). Her Handel and Tartini recordings were both Selections of the Month in the The Strad magazine. Further recordings with period instruments present sonatas by Ferdinand Ries and violin concerti by Jan Kalliwoda and Bernhard van Bree on the label cpo.