Ursina Maria
Braun

Ursina Maria Braun's musical work is characterized by enormous versatility. The winner of the Leipzig Bach Competition is active as a soloist, conductor, and chamber musician, as well as principal cellist of renowned ensembles, and is also a sought-after composer.
With her chamber music partners, including Kit Armstrong, Denes Varjon, Pietro de Maria, Florian Birsak, Reinhard Goebel, Julian Prégardien, Dmitry Smirnov, Lorenza Borrani, Alfredo Bernardini, Franziska Hölscher, Erich Höbarth, and Dorothea Oberlinger, she has made guest appearances at festivals such as Styriarte Graz, Carinthischer Sommer, Thüringer Bachwochen, Bachwochen Ansbach, Suoni delle Dolomiti, Stresa Festival, and Mittelfest, and has performed in concert halls such as the Vienna Musikverein, Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Konzerthaus Berlin.
As principal cellist of the Concentus Musicus, founded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, she is a member of one of the most prestigious ensembles for historical performance practice.
She also performs as principal cellist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the
Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Akademie für Alte Musik, and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

In 2025, two recordings by Ursina Maria Braun were released on the audite label, featuring works for violoncello and piano by Schubert, Beethoven, and Vorisek on the one hand, and music for solo cello by Bach and Gubaidulina on the other, performed on both modern and historical instruments.

Since fall 2025, she has been teaching as a professor of violoncello at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz and at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in the Pre-College Program.

As a composer, Ursina Maria Braun receives commissions from Musikpodium Zürich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Swiss Chamber Concerts, Azahar Ensemble, Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sinfonietta de Lausanne.

Born in Switzerland, she began her training as a junior student with Thomas Grossenbacher at the Zurich University of the Arts, where she also received composition lessons from Andreas Nick. She then went on to study for her bachelor's and master's degrees with Clemens Hagen and Heinrich Schiff at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Additional studies with Reinhard Goebel deepened her interest in historical performance practice, which she has made a major focus of her work.

During her studies, Ursina Maria Braun received numerous awards, including first prize at the international CONCORSO 12 Enrico Mainardi in 2012, the Migros Culture Percentage Study Prize in 2016, and second prize and the audience prize at the international Bach Competition in Leipzig.
During the coronavirus pandemic, she initiated an innovative concert series on the Kapuzinerberg in Salzburg and won second prize at the Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges in 2021.