Anton Sorokow, Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
and Head of the Strings Department, was born in 1978 into a family of musicians in
Moscow. He received his first violin lessons at the age of four from his mother and, at
ten, began studying at the Central Music School in Moscow with Yevgenia
Chugayeva. In 1991, he moved to Vienna and obtained Austrian citizenship in 1996.
That same year he continued his studies at the University of Music and Performing
Arts Vienna with Prof. Dora Schwarzberg, completing them with distinction in March
2004.
In addition to numerous other awards, Anton Sorokow won First Prize and a Special
Prize at the Beethoven Competition in the Czech Republic (1994), as well as First
Prizes at the Stefanie Hohl Competition in Vienna (1997) and the Romano Romanini
Competition in Brescia (1999).
His artistic career has been shaped in particular by his work as a soloist and
concertmaster with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra in
London, and the Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served as First
Concertmaster from 2003 to 2025. A decisive moment in his musical development
was meeting the legendary violinist Isaac Stern in Verbier. Over several years, he
benefited greatly from Stern’s artistic guidance and support. His performances with
the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, as well as
collaborations with distinguished conductors and musicians such as Wolfgang
Sawallisch, Georges Prêtre, Philippe Jordan, Myung-Whun Chung, Kent Nagano,
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Mstislav Rostropovich, Franz Welser-Möst, and Fabio Luisi,
have also had a profound impact on his artistic path. Another highlight of his career
was his 2001 performance with Montserrat Caballé before 5,000 listeners at
Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor Arcade.
From 2003 to 2005, he served as First Concertmaster of the Nuremberg Philharmonic
at the State Theater Nuremberg. Since 2005, he has been First Concertmaster of the
Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
In the summer of 2007, he recorded major violin concertos by Bach, Beethoven,
Tchaikovsky, and Kabalevsky with the Vienna Classical Players. In 2023, he recorded
Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with the Vienna Concert-Verein Chamber
Orchestra on behalf of the Austrian National Bank.
From 2008 to 2011, he taught at the Vienna Conservatory – Private University, and
since 2011 he has served as Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts
Vienna. In 2024, he became Director of the Fritz Kreisler Institute at the same
university. Since 2013, he has been a guest professor at the University of Milan-
Bicocca and a co-founder of the Eisenstadt Easter Seminar and the masterclasses in
Sozopol, Bulgaria. He regularly performs chamber music and teaches masterclasses
at the NYCMF Music Festival in Norway.
He has served on the juries of numerous international competitions and has been
invited to teach at masterclasses both in Austria and abroad. His students have won
positions in major European orchestras—including the Vienna Philharmonic and the
Vienna Symphony Orchestra—and have earned top prizes at international
competitions such as the Fritz Kreisler Competition, the Johannes Brahms
Competition, the Vaclav Hummel Competition in Zagreb, Valsesia Musica, the Anton
Rubinstein Competition in Düsseldorf, and the International Osaka Competition.
Anton Sorokow plays a violin made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, Cremona 1741,
known as the “Ex Carrodus,” from the collection of the Austrian National Bank.