He is a violinist born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany to a family from Goiania, Brazil. He started learning the violin when he was four years old and studied in Mannheim and at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
During his time at the Curtis Institute he was the founder of the Vertigo String Quartet which won the Duchi d’Acquaviva prize. He has since performed with many chamber ensembles throughout the world.
As a solo performer he has won several competitions in various international venues including the Concours de Violon Tibor Varga in Switzerland, the Nelson Freire Competition in Rio De Janeiro and the Louis Spohr Violin Competition. This led to several sponsorship awards and scholarships from the Carl-Flesch Academy.
When he was 22 years old he became Associate Concertmaster with the Philadelphia Orchestra for the 2007-08 season. He took on the position of First Concertmaster of Cologne’s WDR Symphony Orchestra in 2010, was the first concertmaster at the Bayreuth Festival under Christian Thielemann in 2014 and 2015 and in 2016 he became Concertmaster with the Vienna Philharmonic, where he asked to be released from his contract. He also played with the Dresden State Orchestra and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.
Sources:
- https://www.pcmsconcerts.org/artist/jose-maria-blumenschein-violin/
- https://kammermusikkoeln.de/jose-maria-blumenschein.html
- http://www.musik-heute.de/11946/jose-maria-blumenschein-wird-konzertmeister-der-wiener-philharmoniker/
- https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.vienna.at/neuer-vorstand-der-wiener-philharmoniker-hat-einiges-vor/5435691&prev=search&pto=aue
- https://theviolinchannel.com/jose-maria-blumenschein-vienna-philharmonic-state-opera-concertmaster/