Winfried Rademacher studied with Josef Suk in Vienna and Sandor Vegh in Salzburg as well as with Nathan Milstein and the members of the Amadeus Quartet before embarking on a versatile musical career.

He has held the positions of concertmaster with NDR Hamburg, Munich Philharmonic and S. Celibidache, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Claudio Abaddo and SWR Stuttgart under Sir Roger Norrington, Tonhalle Orchestra and Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

Since 1998, he directed Camerata Salzburg and since 2001 the renowned Zurich Chamber Orchestra with which he has made critically acclaimed solo appearances working with musicians such as Joshua Bell, Murray Perahia and Augustin Dumay, Heinz Holliger and Dimitri Sitkovetsky.

Winfried Rademacher is a sought after chamber musician stretching back to his days as leader of the Cherubini Quartet. He performed regularly at Berliner Festwochen, Lockenhaus, Schleswig Holstein, Gstaad, Musicades Lyon, Shanghai Festival, Kuhmo International Festivals. With his Linos Ensemble he performed and recorded with Sabine Meyer, Edward Brunner, Radu Lupu, David Geringas, Oleg Kogan, Vladimir Mendelssohn and Bruno Giuranna. Steven Isserlis has repeatedly invited him to take part in the open chamber music weeks at Prussia Cove in Cornwall and since 2004 he has been playing with the Razumovsky Ensemble, London with whom he recently made several acclaimed Wigmore Hall and other festival appearances.

He also performs “crossover” music with the gypsy violinist Roby Lakatos and participating in the production of numerous Charlie Chaplin films and a Tango CD.

Acclaimed composers such as Isang Yun, Jean Francaix and Wolfgang Rihm have composed pieces for his ensembles which feature on numerous award winning CDs (for the labels Capriccio, EMI, Naxos, Ambitus and CPO) and TV and radio documentaries.

In 1986 he became a Professor of Violin at the Luebeck Musikhochschule before taking up the position of Head of Strings at the Musikhochschule in Trossingen in 1993. He is also Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the Razumovsky Academy in London since 2006 and also gives numerous masterclasses at home and abroad. Winfried Rademacher plays a Nicolo Gagliano violin from 1733.