Christian Tetzlaff (born April 29, 1966) is a German violinist . 　　Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg . His parents were amateur musicians and met in a church choir.He began playing the violin and piano at the age of 6, and made his concert debut at 14 years old. He studied with Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and later with Walter Levin at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music . 　　His breakthrough as a soloist came in 1988, at the age of 22, when he performed Schoenberg 's Violin Concerto in critically acclaimed concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic .The following year he made his solo recital debut in New York .He has continued to play as a soloist with major orchestras on stage and in recordings, including Beethoven 's works for violin and orchestra performed with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich under David Zinman . He joined his sister Tanja (cello) and Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) in winning the 2012 Gramophone Award for best chamber recording (playing Schumann 's piano trios).His recording of Schumann's violin sonatas with Lars Vogt (piano) was named Gramophone ' s recording of the month for January 2014.Other critically acclaimed recordings include his 2007 release of Bach 's sonatas and partitas for solo violin , and his 2012 release of three Mozart violin sonatas with Lars Vogt .His discography includes a number of modern works such as the violin concertos of György Ligeti and Stuart MacRae . 　　In 2011 he signed a long-term recording contract with Ondine .