Anna van der Merwe

Born and raised in South Africa, Anna van der Merwe completed her studies at the University of Cape Town and then at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz with honours. The violinist received numerous awards and scholarships during her studies, including the Oppenheimer Memorial Award and the Fontana Foundation Scholarship. 

As an enthusiastic chamber musician, she has won prizes at several solo and chamber music competitions in South Africa and Europe as a member of the Hensel Quartet and the Oberton String Octet. Anna van der Merwe has also performed as a soloist with the South African National Youth Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic and Kwazulu-Natal Philharmonic. She has attended masterclasses with Mi-kyung Lee, Shlomo Mintz and Alfred Brendel, among others. She was an academist with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and is now a member of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne.