Joanna Kamenarska was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She began her violin studies with Josif Radionov in Sofia before continued in 1995 with Ruggiero Ricci and Igor Ozim at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Joanna has been awarded numerous prizes at international competitions from the age of ten, including third rize of the International Mozart Competition Salzburg in January, 2002. Joanna was also a semi-finalist in the Queen Elizabeth International Competition and the Sibelius Competition, 2005.
Joanna Kamenarska started her career in a paradoxical way - on the one side she was financially challenged and had to play underpaid dinner concerts for tourists at restaurants to support herself during her musical studies in Salzburg, on the other hand she has performed concerts on a regular basis across Europe, Asia and South America.
Amongst other venues, Joanna has performed in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Schauspielhaus Berlin, Mozarteum Grosser Saal, Grosse Aula of the University of Salzburg, Brucknerhaus Linz, Gasteig Munich, Tonhalle Zurich, Schwetzingen Theater, Theater an der Wien, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Cadogan Hall London, Bulgaria Hall Sofia and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. She has been the featured soloist with many orchestras including the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Nuremberg Symphony, Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, Mozart Chamber Orchestra, Salzburg Soloists, Chamber Orchestra CIS, L´Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Hamburg Camerata, Hamburger Symphoniker, Polen Chamber Philharmonic, Philharmonic Orchestra Györ, Kodaly Philharmonic Debrecen, TOHO Symphony orchestra, Japan, as well as symphony orchestras in Sofia, Rousse and Varna in her country of birth, Bulgaria.
As a versatile chamber violinist, violist and Baroque violinist, Joanna has met a colorful array of musical partners on stage ranging from world-known prominent musicians to autodidacts and bohemians which whom she likes to jam during her free time. She has collaborated with Paul Goodwin, Dennis Russell-Davies, Ljubka Biaggioni and Pierre Boulez. Notable performances include collaborations with artists Simone Young, Karl Leister, Alois Brandhofer, Hermann Baumann, Radovan Vlatkovic, Michael Martin Kofler, Benjamin Schmid, Lars-Anders Tomter, Quirine Viersen, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Sofia-Quartett, Voces-Quartett, Joachim Held, Reinhard Goebel, Emma Kirkby, Roland Greutter, Sofia Quartett.
Joanna receives invitations regularly to participate in numerous festivals and concert series including the Festival di Pasqua and Nuovi Spazi Musicali of Rome, Festival Santa Christina, Spain, Aspekte New Music Festival, Salzburg, European Music Festival in Lisbon, Salzburg Cultural Days, Apollonia Festival of Arts, Sozopol, Bulgaria, International Mozarteum Foundation, Salzburg, Mozart Festival, Schwetzingen, Bachgesellschaft, Salzburg, and Mozartfest in Chieti.
From 2004–2007, Joanna was Primaria of the Mozart Quartet Salzburg. Since then, she has been the first violin of the Faust Quartett Basel on a project basis. She has also collaborated for many years with the well-known Swedish pianist Per Rundberg. Their work encompasses a vast repertoire, which extends from the music of the fifteenth century to avant-garde and new repertoire. Other pianists she has worked with include Irina Georgieva, Fumiko Shiraga and Moises Fernandes Via.
Joanna's playing has been broadcasted by the German, Austrian, Swedish and Bulgarian Radio and Television and she has recorded two CD's – "INITIO" for the Label Gega New with Irina Georgieva, of works by Fauré, Prokofieff, WIeniawski, 2014 and "Landscapes" for URTEXT CLASSICS Boston with Moisés Fernandes Via, of works by Schubert and Rautavaara, recorded and produced in Tanglewood, 2018.
Joanna Kamenarska was contracted as concertmaster with the NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg for the 2007/2008 season. During this time, she won the audition for the second Concertmaster position of Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg. She has been regularly invited as a guest concertmaster with the following orchestras: WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Camerata Salzburg, Hamburger Camerata, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Kassel.
Joanna has recently been dedicating time to pedagogical activities with masterclasses in Europe and Asia.
In December 2017, she won a teaching position at the Hochschule für for the position of Lecturer of orchestra studies. For nine years Joanna performed on a G.B. Guadagnini violin built in 1771. She is now taking advantage of a private loan of a violin by Nicolaus Gagliano, built in 1751.
PRESS
"...With a thundering applause... star of the evening..." Berliner Morgenpost
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"...absolutely solid in the wavelength between power and feeling" Salzburger Volkszeitung
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"...Seldom has a violinist in such a clever way been able to use the fabulous acoustic of the Evangelic Church of Bad Rothenfelde like the violinist Joanna Kamenarska playing the Partita in E major by J.S.Bach... Additional to the dynamically well blended echo-effects she was still drawing attention to the finest motivical developments with a slight breath of piano behind them and was in that way able to build up an enormous tension in the course of the Preludio. Emanating a meditative calmness, she played the Loure so impressively as if she was singing into her own self. Her creativity impressed in the freshly dancing access to the Gavotte, by a contrasted way of playing the Minuets as well as the intelligently played latent two-part writing of the Gigue..." Harry Jahns, Bad Rothenfelde