Concertmaster of the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, violinist Georg Kallweit is a noted master of the Baroque violin. He has also been a guest soloist with many other historically oriented and modern-instrument orchestras. Kallweit was born in Greifswald, in the northeastern part of what was then East Germany in 1966. His family included doctors who played music on the side, and they recognized his talent. Kallweit was sent to a music school in East Berlin as a child and then enrolled at East Germany's leading music university, the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. He became interested in the pre-Classical and early Classical styles and took up the Baroque violin. Kallweit joined the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, East Germany's pioneering historical-performance group, taking solos and eventually advancing to concertmaster. Kallweit has made guest soloist appearances with various groups, mostly but not exclusively associated with early music, including the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Lautten Compagney Berlin, and Ensemble Resonanz Hamburg. He has also performed with lutenist Björn Colell as one half of Ombra e Luce, a duo specializing in the music of the early Italian Baroque, and has performed chamber music with the Berlin Barock Compagney. Kallweit has traveled as a soloist across Europe, to North and South America, and to Asia. Among the many recordings Kallweit has made with the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin are several on which he has been featured as a soloist. These have appeared on the Harmonia Mundi, Alpha, and PentaTone labels, and include Concerto: Venice - The Golden Age in 2014 and, in 2020, the first recording featuring Handel's Op. 3 concerti grossi, in a new series devoted to Handel's concerti grossi. Ombra e Luce has released several albums on the Raumklang label. Including all the Akademie für alte Musik releases, Kallweit has appeared on more than 60 albums. He teaches at music schools in Leipzig, Weimar, and Helsinki. ~ James Manheim