The German violist Sarina Zickgraf, born in 1991, was one of the youngest students ever entering the Pflueger-Foundation (International String Foundation Freiburg). After completing her bachelor’s degree with Prof. Wolfram Christ in Freiburg, Zickgraf continued with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, as one of a few in the soloist diploma programme. Getting selected to take part in several masterclasses such as the Verbier Festival Academy, the International Summer Academy in Salzburg or the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove with famous violists like Yuri Bashmet, Antoine Tamestit, Nobuko Imai, Wilfried Strehle, Hariolf Schichtig, and Lars Anders Tomter gave her further musical impulses. Supported for several years as a young artist of the Villa Musica Foundation Rheinland Pfalz, Zickgraf got to play with various musicians such as Boris Garlitsky, Augustin Dumay or Vadim Gluzman and was awarded the prize of the Fellow of the Year 2016.
Her passion for chamber music brought her to several festivals like the Ruhr Piano Festival, Kasseler Musiktage, Kitzbühler Sommer or Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, where she shared the stage with Graham Johnson, Lukas and Clemens Hagen, Xavier de Maistre and others. Alongside Christian Tetzlaff, Zickgraf was playing at Chamber Music Connects the World at the Kronberg Academy 2016. With Tabea Zimmermann, she appeared in concerts at the International Viola Congress 2016 in Cremona and the Exzellenz-Konzerte series of the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin. From 2016 to 2018 Zickgraf was supported by the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation and was one of the prize winners of the Peter-Pirazzi Competition 2019. Starting as the solo violist in the German National Youth Orchestra followed by the academy of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg as well as constantly playing as a guest in several orchestras such as Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks or Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Zickgraf already gained a large orchestral experience. Zickgraf held the position of Co-Principal with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in the season 2019/20.