Silas Zschocke, born in Karlsruhe in 1997, received his first violin lessons at the age of six and began playing the viola at twelve. He was a junior student at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe with Johannes Lüthy and from 2012 to 2015 with Ina Kertscher at the Institut zur Früh-Förderung musikalisch Hochbegabter in Hanover. In 2015-2019 Silas Zschocke studied with Tabea Zimmermann at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and in 2018/19 he was taught by Martin Outram at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Since the winter semester 2019/20, the violist has been attending Lawrence Power’s class at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Silas Zschocke took part in the Verbier Festival Academy and worked with artists such as Juri Baschmet, Menahem Pressler and Antoine Tamestit. He received further valuable inspiration from Thomas Selditz, Gilad Karni, Hartmut Rohde, Roland Glassl and Alexander Zemtsov, among others.

He has been awarded numerous national and international prizes such as the “Hans Sikorski Memorial Prize” or the “Werner Stiefel Prize” of the Carl Flesch Academy in Baden-Baden.

Silas Zschocke has performed as a soloist with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Tung-Chieh Chuang, with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic under Pavel Baleff, with the Bergische Symphoniker and the Heidelberg Philharmonic. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in many major halls in Europe, Asia and the USA and has been a guest at renowned festivals. Silas Zschocke is passionate about chamber music and has performed with artists such as Janine Jansen, Tabea Zimmermann, Jens-Peter Maintz and Amihai Grosz.

As a prize-winner of the 22nd competition of the German Musical Instrument Fund, Silas Zschocke has been playing a viola by Haiko Seifert, Plauen 2014, owned by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, since February 2014.

At Rahn Musikpreis 2022 Silas Zschocke won the first prize in the category for viola.

Application

The board of trustees of the Rahn Kulturfonds meets twice a year and will consider all fully completed applications received.

Next board meeting:
4 April 2023

Rahn Kulturfonds supports requests regarding a contribution to the performance fees if:

• it is a project with or by Rahn Kulturfonds prize winners.
• it is a project with Rahn Kulturfonds scholarship holders.

Rahn Kulturfonds supports its prize winners and scholarship holders during four years after receiving the award.

For the board meeting on 4 April 2023, please hand in your complete application no later than 13 March 2023 by email or by filling out the following form.