As a solo player, a chamber musician, and first violinist of the Leipzig String Quartet, Andreas Seidel has become one of the foremost champions of contemporary violin music in Germany. Seidel was born in Halle, then in East Germany, and began violin studies at age seven. He attended the Spezialschule für Musik in Halle and then enrolled at Leipzig University, majoring in music and studying violin and chamber music with Gerhard Bosse (then the concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra) and conducting with Wolf-Dieter Hauschild. Graduating in 1985, he progressed in his career with startling speed. That same year, he joined the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and by 1988 he was the leader of its first violin section. He joined the Leipzig String Quartet in 1988 as first violinist, and his tenure there, which lasted until 2008, resulted in a large discography and a collection of prizes such as the Echo Classic Award (four times) and an award at the Munich Radio Competition. In 2009 Seidel became deputy first concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and he has been artistic director of its chamber offshoot, the Gewandhaus Octet. He has taught at the Gewandhaus Orchestra's academy and at Leipzig University. Noted for his attention to intonation and its interaction with the characteristics of performance spaces, Seidel as a soloist has recorded for the German audiophile label MDG. He has often collaborated with fellow Halle native and contemporary music specialist Steffen Schleiermacher in violin-and-piano works. With Schleiermacher he released his debut, a set of violin-and-piano works by John Cage, in 2010, and a sophomore release devoted to German composer Wolfgang Rihm the following year. The pair returned in 2012 with an album of music by Morton Feldman, departed from contemporary music with an unusual pairing of works by Liszt and Satie in 2017, and released an album of violin-and-piano music by Galina Ustvolskaya in 2018. He plays a Testore violin from the year 1740. ~ James Manheim