Guest artists with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestras are more often than not exceedingly generous with their time for teaching our young musicians and Tassilo Probst (pictured left), coming to the CPO on 4 September 2025, to perform the 1st Wieniawski Violin Concerto in the second concert in Spring Symphonies under the baton of Daniel Raiskin at the City Hall, is one of them. He will give a masterclass to six CPYO musicians and one CPO former member on 5 September, the day after his concert, says PETA STEWART:
Tassilo Probst has a very close relationship to Daniel Hope, the South African born violinist with a huge career in Europe, and they play together “whenever it works out,” he says.
“I received master classes from him in 2019 and since then we have worked closely together. He’s not only an absolute role model artistically, but above all, he’s simply a fantastic person, very humble, always willing to listen to his fellow musicians, and always willing to help wherever he can, despite his busy schedule. That’s truly remarkable and I learned a lot from him in that regard,” says Probst.
With Hope, Probst has had many “amazing concerts in Germany, a fantastic tour with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Bach Double Concerto in Switzerland. My main chamber partners are two pianists, Maxim Lando – my best friend from New York, with whom I recorded my debut album in 2021. We tour regularly in the US and Germany and will record another album next year. I also regularly play concerts in Europe with Amadeus Wiesensee, who also is an outstanding pianist”.
Probst, who won the Louis Spohr Competition in Weimar when he was 16, went on to win many other competitions but now he says he is enjoying the concert lifestyle which is much more fun than competitions!
Why the 1st and not the 2nd Wieniawski, which is far more often played?
He wants to introduce audiences to the lesser known one because it’s “just a fantastic violin concerto and so much fun to perform! There are so many different facets, beautiful themes and a ton of virtuosity!”
Music, sports – and cigars!
His concert lifestyle is actually spent more as an orchestral soloist than a chamber musician, and he says he spends perhaps two thirds of his time playing with orchestras, the rest giving recitals.
His parents weren’t musicians – but his lawyer father was an amateur violinist and “when I was young, he would play a few songs on the violin for my brother and me at Christmas, and that’s how we both started playing the violin. My brother stopped over the years, but every Christmas the three of us still play trios of Christmas songs together.”
He is not only stuck on music. “I love doing all sorts of sports! But I’m also a big fan of cooking (and eating unfortunately) … plus I’m am a huge cigar and whiskey nerd!” (We need to point him in direction of such bars in Cape Town!).
The other works on the CPO programme are the Prometheus Overture and the 6th Symphony by Shostakovich,
What: Tassilo Probst with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra
Where and when: Cape Town City Hall on 4 September 2025
Tickets: Webtickets and Artscape Dial-A-Seat 021 421 7695
WS
