Liisa Randalu (viola) was born in Tallinn, Estonia and grew up in Karlsruhe, Germany, where she started playing the violin. After studying the violin in Stuttgart for two years, she continued her viola studies at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts with Prof. Roland Glassl and later at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin under Prof. Friedemann Weigle (former Artemis Quartet). She also studied String Quartet and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (Cologne) with Prof. Harald Schoneweg (Cherubini Quartet) and at the Reina Sofia School of Music Madrid with Prof. Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet).
As a soloist and chamber musician Liisa Randalu has won several international competitions and played with orchestras such as the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.
From 2012, Liisa Randalu has been the violist of the Schumann Quartet – winner of the Schubert Competition Graz 2012, the Grand Prix of the Quatuors à Bordeaux (Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition) 2013, the Jürgen-Ponto-Prize 2014 and the BBC Newcomer Award in 2016. The quartet regularly plays at halls including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein as well as at all major renown festivals in and outside of Europe. Their CD Landscapes got the German Record Critics’ Award in 2017 and the album Intermezzo together with soprano Anna Lucia Richter won the Opus Klassik Award in 2019. The Schumann Quartet has been the Artist in Residence with its own series Erstklassik at the Robert-Schumann-Saal in Düsseldorf as well as the artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York. Since 2022, Liisa Randalu has been principal violist of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester).
Liisa Randalu is also the violist of the Albrecht Mayer Quartet and regularly plays concerts in this formation. Future projects will include collaborations with fellow artists like Pablo Barragán, Diana Tishchenko, Eckart Runge, Mario Häring and Fabian Müller.
Furthermore she teaches at the Feuermann Conservatory of the Kronberg Academy and at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.
Liisa Randalu plays on a viola by Giovanni Pistucci (~1880).
