Frank Peter Zimmermann was born in Duisburg in 1965.

He studied at the Folkwang Hochschule, Essen, with Valery Gradov, the Staatliche Hochschule in Berlin with Saschko Gawriloff, and from 1980 with Hermann Krebbers in Amsterdam. He made his debut in 1975 playing Mozart’s G major Concerto K.216, and in 1976 he won the Jugend Musiziert competition. Zimmermann subsequently appeared as a soloist throughout Europe and made his US debut in 1984 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He has since followed an international solo career, performing with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, and has often played in major festivals. He plays the ‘Hilton’ Stradivarius of 1691, strung with gut strings, on which he produces a beautiful, pure tone.