Clara Scholtes’ musical journey began in the Bavarian State Opera’s Children’s Choir, before she went on to study violin and chamber music in Munich and Barcelona, as well as at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, where she also held a position as Associate Instructor of Violin. Her teachers were Eva Nagora, Markus Wolf, Raquel Castro Pego, and Mauricio Fuks, with further artistic guidance from Rainer Schmidt, Pamela Frank, Thomas Zehetmair, Nora Chastain, Yuval Gotlibovich, Atar Arad, the Cuarteto Casals, and the Pacifica Quartet. She is currently continuing her studies in the masterclass of Lorenza Borrani at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Florence.
A dedicated chamber musician, she has performed at festivals including the Zermatt Music Festival, Orford Musique, and the Festival Isaac Albéniz. She is a laureate of several competitions and has recorded for NAXOS. From 2014 to 2018, she held a scholarship from the German state foundation Cusanuswerk.
In addition, she is also active as a period-instrument player. While at Indiana University, she somewhat accidentally joined the school’s Baroque orchestra and fell in love with gut strings, which led her to study Baroque violin and historically informed performance with Stanley Ritchie. She was a fellow of the European Union Baroque Orchestra in 2018 and has collaborated with leading early music artists including Ingrid Matthews, Amandine Beyer, Thomas Dunford, and Mayumi Hirasaki.
From an early age, she gained orchestral experience with several German youth orchestras and toured widely throughout Europe with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. She is a member of the Bavarian State Orchestra since 2020, frequently appears as a guest musician with Spira Mirabilis, and joins the Mahler Chamber Orchestra as an Associate Member for the 2025/26 season.
Violin aside, Clara enjoys music of all kinds. She loves reading, visiting museums, vegetarian food, spending time with friends, and being in nature — ideally near a lake or the beach.
Clara Scholtes 