Biography

”Her taut musical intelligence and vivid sound combined with a fine instinct for the tender, searching quality of this music … absolutely magical.” The Guardian

Isabelle van Keulen is one of the rare musicians to have established an international reputation both as a violinist and as a violist. With her charismatic presence and artistic versatility, she has been a fixture on the world’s major concert stages for decades.

As a soloist, she has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with distinguished conductors including Hartmut Haenchen, Philippe Herreweghe, Andris Nelsons, Sir Roger Norrington, and Andrew Manze.

Chamber music is a core part of her artistic work. Particularly notable is her long-standing collaboration with pianist Ronald Brautigam. In addition, Isabelle van Keulen is deeply committed to contemporary music, with a repertoire that includes works by composers such as Henri Dutilleux, John Adams, Lera Auerbach, Oliver Knussen, and Brett Dean. Her recording of the violin concerto dedicated to her by Erkki-Sven Tüür, made with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, received wide critical acclaim.

She was the founder and long-time artistic director of the Delft Chamber Music Festival and served as director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra from 2009 to 2012. Since 2019, she has been the artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein and also leads the Norrbotten Chamber Orchestra in Sweden.

Her discography features a wide range of repertoire, including violin concertos by Beethoven, Prokofiev, and Berg, chamber music by Brahms, Schumann, Ravel, and Shostakovich, and the acclaimed Piazzolla recordings with the Isabelle van Keulen Ensemble. Her recordings have been released on labels such as Challenge Records, BIS, EMI, Warner Classics, Philips, and Berlin Classics – including recent projects as soloist and conductor with the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss.

Isabelle van Keulen is also a sought-after jury member at major international competitions, most recently at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels (2024) and the Sendai International Music Competition. Since 2012, she has held a professorship in violin, viola, and chamber music at the Lucerne School of Music.