A born and bred Berliner – his father was the Baltic-German composer Boris Blacher – Kolja Blacher has performed as a soloist all over the world, with orchestras such as Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, NDR Symphony, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Orchestra di Santa Cecilia and Baltimore Symphony. He has worked with conductors including Kirill Petrenko, Vladimir Jurowski, Dimitri Kitajenko, Mariss Jansons, Matthias Pintscher, Markus Stenz, Simone Young and Asher Fish.

In the past five years „Play-Conduct “concerts have become the new focus in Blacher’s artistic activities. He worked regularly with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the «Komische Oper» in Berlin.

As a conductor he will be leading all the concerts of the Chamber Orchestra of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, “Giuseppe Verdi” for the next Seasons and with the Tallin Chamber Orchestra he will be soloist and conductor for a residency in 2023/2024.

Blacher has recorded highly acclaimed CDs (e.g. Diapason d’Or) in collaboration with Claudio Abbado, with whom he has maintained close ties since their time at the Berlin Philharmonic and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. His CD with Schönberg’s Violin Concerto (with Markus Stenz and Gürzenich-Orchester Köln) was released in Autumn 2013.

He plays a 1730 Guaneri del Gesu violin, generously on loan from Ms Kimiko Powers.