Artistic brilliance and innovative programming are the trademarks that have earned Nils Mönkemeyer a reputation as one of the world’s most successful violists, dramatically raising the profile of his instrument.
His programmes run the gamut from rediscoveries and first recordings of original 18th-century viola literature to contemporary repertoire and arrangements of his own. This is also reflected in his CD recordings with Sony Classical, which have repeatedly won awards and been celebrated by the international press. The most recent example, the album “Dance for Two”, released in spring 2023 with recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger, brings together works from over a thousand years of music history, mostly in their own arrangements for this special instrumentation.
In the 2025/26 season Nils Mönkemeyer performs at major festivals, such as the Rheingau, Schleswig Holstein, the Mozartfest Würzburg and Festpiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, as well as the Toppan Hall’s Chamber Music Festival in Tokyo. He continues his three year residency with the Philharmonische Gesellschaft Bremen, in projects to include a performance with the Signum Quartet, plus a recital with pianist William Youn. Other special chamber music projects this season include trio concerts in Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Leipzig with Sabine Meyer and William Youn to mark Sabine Meyer’s final public chamber music engagements; a recital with Dorothee Oberlinger; Nils’s ¡Viola Latina! project in Lucerne with members of the Bach Consort Vienna; a European tour with the Julia Fischer Quartet and a fascinating programme with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, which he will play-direct, including works by Hildegard von Bingen, J S Bach, Dowland, Vivaldi and Grazyna Bacewicz.
As a soloist, Nils Mönkemeyer’s highlights this season include performances of Dieter Ammann’s Viola Concerto with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Esprit Orchestra, Toronto, following his successful premiere of the work with the Sinfonieorchester Basel last season. Further highlights include appearances with the Bremer Philharmoniker, with which he performs the premiere of Konstantia Gourzi’s “Ishaón, the Angel in the Golden Garden”, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, in concerts both in Busan and in Munich.
Nils Mönkemeyer is a frequent collaborator with conductors such as Andrej Boreyko, Sylvain Cambreling, Constantinos Carydis, Nicholas Collon, Reinhard Goebel, Elias Grandy, Pietari Inkinen, Vladimir Jurowski, Joana Mallwitz, Andrew Manze, Cornelius Meister, Mark Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Markus Poschner, Kristiina Poska, Michael Sanderling, Clemens Schuldt, Markus Stenz, Mario Venzago and Simone Young. He performs as a soloist with distinguished orchestras such as Zurich Tonhalle, London Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Vienna Radio Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Berne Symphony, Orchestra della svizzera italiana, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester and Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Hamburg Philharmonic, Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester, SWR Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Munich Chamber Orchestra and Berliner Barock Solisten.
Nils Mönkemeyer was recently appointed professor at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, having held a professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich since 2011. In 2025 he was awarded the prize of “University Teacher of the Year” by the German Univeristies Authority, the first time that this accolade has been granted to a musician. He plays a viola made by Philipp Augustin.