2026 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient
Winner of the Ysaÿe International Competition and recipient of the ICMA Discovery Award in 2022, Julian Kainrath is a violinist whose playing is marked by both emotional depth and technical brilliance. After making a remarkable debut at the age of 16 with Adam Fischer and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra at the Philharmonie Luxembourg, he has gone on to perform on many of Europe’s most prestigious stages.
Julian performed recitals and concertos with orchestra in Italy, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, and the United States. Highlights included his debut in Venice at the Apollonian Halls of Teatro La Fenice; a performance of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin at the Ristori Baroque Festival in Verona; debuts with the Westdeutsche Sinfonia, Orchestra Sinfonica di Bari, Streicherakademie Bozen, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Orchestra Busoni, I Virtuosi Italiani, and the Innstrumenti Orchestra Innsbruck, as well as a Bach-focused project with the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn. He also undertook several tours across cities in Italy, Austria, Germany, and Belgium.
Julian Kainrath regularly performs as a recitalist. His chamber music partners have included renowned artists such as Till Fellner, Ilya Gringolts, Louis Lortie, and Roberto Prosseda.
Highlights of his 2025/2026 season include a performance with Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra at the Kursaal Merano, an appearance at the Smetana Hall in Prague with the North Czech Philharmonic, his debut at the Miami Piano Festival, and a recital tour through Italy, Austria, Germany, and Spain.In Summer 2026 he will play at the Mahlerwochen Festival in Toblach, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad as well as at the Pietrasanta in Concerto festival which includes a chamber music appearance with Martha Argerich.
Summer festival appearances included the Engadin Festival in St. Moritz, Switzerland; the Bolzano Festival Bozen and the Tonadico Festival in Italy, the Bergerac Festival in France, the Stiftskonzerte Klassik in Austria, the Riviera di Ulisse Festival in Rome, and the Art Gallery of Sofia, Bulgary.
In 2026–2027, he will embark on an extensive tour acrossItaly and Austria with pianist Lilya Zilberstein, while also making his debut at Milan’s Teatro dal Verme.
At the age of 14, Julian was selected as a resident student at the 26th Verbier Festival, where he performed and studied with leading violinists such as Pamela Frank, Donald Weilerstein, and Kristóf Baráti. He later trained with Ilya Gringolts at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, performing a recital dedicated to Steve Reich alongside Gringolts.
Since age 15, Julian has maintained a dynamic performance schedule across Europe and beyond. He has appeared at festivals and venues including Settimane Musicali di Merano, Società dei Concerti (Milan), Konzerthaus Wien (Konzertzuhaus with pianist Till Fellner), Amici della Musica (Padua), Società del Quartetto (Bergamo), Jeunes Talents Festival (Cannes), Angelika-Kauffmann-Saal and Ehrbar Saal (Austria), Teatro Ristori (Verona), the Austrian Cultural Forum (Washington, D.C.), and in cities such as Bern, Marseille, Munich, and Liechtenstein.
Julian studied violin with Dora Schwarzberg in Vienna and was admitted at the age of twelve into the class of Boris Kuschnir at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. He is currently studying with Marc Bouchkov at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège in Belgium. He met Bouchkov in Verbier in 2019, after which they began working together before he officially entered his class in Liège. He was a scholarship holder at the International Music Academy Liechtenstein.
He plays on a Michelangelo Bergonzi from 1744-45 kindly loaned by Florian Leonhard Fine Instruments and a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume 1828 loaned by a private donor.