Rosa Donata Milton
2023 Featured Soloist
Rosa Donata Milton is First Concertmaster of the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany. She has performed as soloist with orchestras throughout Germany and internationally, and is in high demand as a chamber musician and Guest Concertmaster. She has also performed with the internationally renowned Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Bern in Switzerland, and has served as Guest Concertmaster with orchestras such as Staatskapelle Weimar, Hofer Symphoniker, Philharmonic Orchestra Altenburg-Gera, Staatstheater Saarbrücken and Anhaltischen Philharmonie Dessau. Since 2008 Rosa Donata Milton has been a Lecturer at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar and she is also a Professor at the Orchestral Academy Thürinigia.
Rosa Donata Milton commenced violin studies in the Black Forest at the age of four. At the age of eight, she was accepted into the studio in Freiburg of the renowned pedagogue Professor Wolfgang Marschner, who remained her most important mentor until she reached the age of seventeen. Professor Marschner placed great importance on a broad musical education, and during this period Rosa Donata studied not only violin but also piano, singing, chamber music and composition. She continued her violin studies in Weimar and graduated in the soloist class of Professor Jost Witter with the highest honours. During her studies, she participated in international master courses with Ruggiero Ricci, Igor Ozim, Ida Haendel, and Norbert Brainin. As a chamber musician, she was mentored by members of the legendary Amadeus Quartet. Rosa Donata Milton won First Prize of the International Spohr Violin Competition. A recipient of major scholarships from the International Carl Flesch Academy and the State of Thüringia, she is also a winner of the Stennebrüggen Prize awarded by the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Eduard Söring Prize of the German Music Foundation, and the prestigious Leonberger Award.
Rosa Donata Milton is renowned for her interpreations of the major violin concertos of the 20th and 21st centuries, including the major works for violin and orchestra by Barber, Bartok, Bernstein, Korngold, Prokofiev, Schostakovich and Vasks. Her performances have been broadcast live on television and radio on all of the major networks. Rosa Donata performs on one of three fine historical violins; depending on repertoire, she chooses between an instrument by the legendary French maker Vuillaume, a violin by François Caussin 'Ex-Leila Josefowicz' or a 1776 instrument by the the maker known as the English Amati, Benjamin Banks.
See Rosa Donata Milton perform the stunning Violin Concerto in D Major by Erich Korngold in our July program: