For many years, Tabea Zimmermann has been recognised as one of the most popular and renowned musicians of our time. Her charismatic personality, thorough musical understanding and natural playing is equally valued by her audience and her musical partners. Arguably the finest violist in the world today, Tabea Zimmermann owes her success not only to her exceptional talent, but also to the support of her parents, thorough training by excellent teachers, and a tireless enthusiasm to communicate her understanding and love of music to her audience.

As a soloist, she regularly appears with the major international orchestras such as Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony. In the season of 2005/2006, she is featured with two residencies at Alte Oper Frankfurt and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, both of which will showcase her musical versatility. Further highlights of the season are concerts with Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Berliner Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle at the Salzburg Festival. In chamber music, Tabea Zimmermann will play with Hartmut Höll in Boswil, Stuttgart and Zurich, with Antje Weithaas in Antwerp and Ludwigshafen, with Silke Avenhaus at Wigmore Hall London, and with Christian Tetzlaff, Alban Gerhardt and Lars Vogt at Edinburgh Festival and Schubertiade Schwarzenberg.

The Arcanto Quartet with violinists Antje Weithaas and Daniel Sepec and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras continues to be a special focus in Tabea Zimmermann's chamber music activities. In season 2004/05, they gave their debuts at the Beethovenhaus Bonn, Vredenburg Utrecht, Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, Conservatoire Royal Brussels, Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspiele and Leif Ove Andsnes' Chamber Music Festival in Risør, Norway. Highlights of season 2005/06 are their London debut in February 2006 at London's Wigmore Hall, and concerts at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and in Milan.

Tabea Zimmermann has inspired many contemporary composers to write for the viola and has introduced many new works into the standard concert and chamber music repertoire. In April 1994 she gave the highly successful world premiere of the Sonata for Solo Viola by György Ligeti, a work especially composed for her. The subsequent premieres of this work in London, New York, Paris, Jerusalem, Amsterdam and Japan attracted great critical and public acclaim. In recent seasons, Tabea Zimmermann premiered Recicanto for Viola and Orchestra by Heinz Holliger with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Sally Beamish's Viola Concerto No. 2 The Seafarer with Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Über die Linie IV by Wolfgang Rihm with Junge Deutsche Philharmonie.

Numerous CDs document Tabea Zimmermann's versatility, amongst them recordings of works by Bartok, Brahms, Bruch, Britten, Hindemith, Shostakovich and Stravinsky for EMI. Furthermore, she has recorded chamber music for Teldec, Deutsche Grammophon and Philips. Ars Musici has released a recording of the concert in which she played Beethoven's own viola at the Beethovenhaus Bonn, accompanied by Hartmut Höll. She has also recorded a duo recital CD for Capriccio with works by Schumann with Hartmut Höll. Her latest concerto releases are a live recording of Berlioz's Harold en Italie under Sir Colin Davis with London Symphony Orchestra for LSO live and a recording of Bloch's Suite for Viola and Orchestra with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Steven Sloane for Capriccio.

Tabea Zimmermann has received several national and international awards for her outstanding artistic contributions including Hessischer Kulturpreis, Frankfurter Musikpreis and International Prize Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Sienna.

Tabea Zimmermann started to play the viola at the age of three, and two years later began playing the piano. She studied with Ulrich Koch at the Musikhochschule Freiburg and subsequently with Sandor Vegh at the Mozarteum Salzburg. Following her studies, she received several awards at international competitions, amongst them first prizes at the 1982 Geneva International Competition and the 1984 Budapest International Competition. As a result of winning the 1983 Maurice Vieux Competition in Paris, she received a viola by the contemporary maker Etienne Vatelot on which she has performed ever since. From 1987 to 2000, she regularly gave concerts with the late David Shallon, father of her two sons Yuval and Jonathan, in Düsseldorf, Jerusalem and Luxemburg. Tabea Zimmermann recently married the American conductor Steven Sloane, their daughter Maya was born in September 2003. Since October 2002, she has been professor at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. She previously held teaching posts at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken (1987 to 1989) and Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt (1994 to 2002).