Rahel Maria Rilling is an internationally sought-after, versatile violinist and artist. She comes from a renowned family of musicians. As a soloist, Rahel Rilling has played with various orchestras, such as the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz and the Orquesta Sinfonica Simon Bolivar in Caracas/Venezuela conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. She has been a guest at the Sarasota Music Festival in Florida and the Santander Festival in Spain. Her solo album with all 6 Bach sonatas for violin and piano was released in November 2021 on the Hänssler Classic label with Johannes Roloff on the piano. Rahel Rilling’s chamber music partners also include Sir Simon Rattle and his wife Magdalena Kožena. In 2006, Rahel Rilling founded the Chamber Music Festival Hohenstaufen, which has taken place near Stuttgart every autumn since then. The resulting Hohenstaufen Ensemble makes guest appearances all over the world, playing chamber music with artists such as Jeffrey Kahane, Avi Avital and Jörg Widmann at venues such as the international Thüringer Bachwochen and the Jerusalem Arts Festival. The Hohenstaufen Ensemble has recorded two CDs, each featuring several works by Rahel’s jewish great-grandfather Robert Kahn. In addition to so-called serious music, Rilling is also interested in jazz, pop, experimental and electronic music. She DJs occasionally and is a member of the string quartet DIE NIXEN (The Mermaids), whose repertoire includes settings of jazz and pop pieces that she has arranged herself, as well as newly composed works. Rahel also performs as a member of the internationally renowned group SALUT SALON. In recent years, concert tours have taken the group through France, Italy, Holland, Portugal and Tunisia.
Rahel is increasingly committed to getting young audiences interested in classical music: together with the actress Claudia Wiedemer she set the two books Momo and The Neverending Story by Michael Ende to music with violin, voice and a loop device, in a musical reading for children. During the pandemic, Rahel Rilling received a grant from the GVL to develop her latest project: with her string quartet DIE NIXEN, she created the mini musical OCEANKIDS.
Rahel Rilling lives and works in Berlin. She plays a violin made in 1767 by Tomaso Balestrieri, Cremona, Italy. At the Maxim Gorki Theater, Rahel Rilling can be seen and heard together with Vidina Popov in the production FREMD by Michel Friedman, directed by Lena Brasch.
