Born in Vienna, Benjamin Schmid made his international breakthrough with a string of competition successes in 1992, above all the Carl Flesch Competition in London, where he won not only first prize but also the Mozart Prize, Beethoven Prize and Audience Prize. Since then, he has performed at major venues worldwide with distinguished orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich under conductors including Dohnányi, Gergiev, Zinman and Ozawa. His repertoire is exceptionally broad, including such rare violin concertos as those of Ligeti, Gulda, Korngold, Muthspiel, Szymanowski, Weill, Lutosławski and Reger in addition to the core repertoire, and he also has a remarkable skill in jazz improvisation.

Benjamin Schmid has recorded more than 40 acclaimed CDs, winning awards such as the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, the Echo Klassik music prize, Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Record of the Month and Strad Selection. He has appeared at concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic broadcast on TV worldwide: under Seiji Ozawa at the Salzburg Festival and under Valery Gergiev at the summer night concert at Schönbrunn. Both concerts have also been released on CD and DVD.

Benjamin Schmid has been featured in several documentaries capturing his outstanding artistic persona. In 2006, he received the International Prize for Arts and Culture in his home city of Salzburg, where he now lives with his wife, pianist Ariane Haering, and their four children.

Benjamin Schmid is a professor at the University Mozarteum Salzburg and a visiting professor in Bern. He plays a Stradivari violin, ‘ex Guyot 1705’, and was included in the book Great Violinists of the 20th Century, Vol. 2 by J.M. Molkou, published by Buchet-Chastel.