Biography
Irmgard Schaller comes from a musical family in Salzburg and studied from an early age at the Mozarteum, where she had the good luck to attend classes in performance practice with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Subsequently she specialised in baroque violin with Lucy van Dael at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, graduating with the Concert Diploma in 1989.To her own surprise she soon found herself playing chamber music with highly esteemed colleagues in groups like the Schönbrunn Ensemble Amsterdam, Banda del Seicento (Kees Boeke), Concerto Palatino (Bruce Dickey and Charles Toet), Ensemble 415 (Chiara Banchini) and Ensemble Trazom - and after her move to England with Chiaroscuro (Nigel Rogers) and The Taverner Players (Andrew Parrott and Andrew Manze). From 1994 to 2015 she was a member of London Baroque and also formed a regular duo with harpsichordist Sophie Yates.
Her orchestral playing these days is mostly with the Orchestra of the 18th Century. She has also played with La Petite Bande, Anima Eterna, Das Kleine Konzert, the Nederlandse Bachvereniging and The English Baroque Soloists.
Since her move to Germany she has performed recitals with Gary Cooper, Menno van Delft and Gerald Hambitzer; and chamber music concerts with Wim Becu, David Bergmüller, Hana Blazíková, Michael Borgstede, Ariadne Daskalakis, Leo van Doeselaar, Heidi Gröger, Ketil Haugsand, Peter Kooij, Balazs Mate, Michael Schmidt-Casdorff, Martin Stadler, Mary Utiger, Mieneke van der Velden, Dominik Wörner, Rainer Zipperling and the Amsterdam String Quartet. With Richard Gwilt she founded the Ensemble Arcomelos.
She has led the Ensemble Weser-Renaissance Bremen, Kirchheimer Bach Consort, Concerto Grosso Bonn and London Baroque, when in orchestra formation. As a soloist she performed all violin concertos of Bach, Brandenburg concertos 4, 5 & 6, Vivaldi's Spring and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante.
Special treats in her career were the Brandenburg concertos with the Kuijken brothers and Gustav Leonhardt, Boccherini quintets with Anner Bijlsma, numerous inspiring chamber music concerts with Emma Kirkby and some truly memorable concerts with Frans Brüggen‘s Orchestra of the 18th Century.