Education
She studied violin and other stringed instruments as a student of Josef Mertin and became interested in Baroque violin.
concertmaster violinist viola d"amore player
She studied violin and other stringed instruments as a student of Josef Mertin and became interested in Baroque violin.
She is noted for her playing of the Baroque violin, viol, and other stringed instruments. Alice Hoffelner was born in 1930 in Vienna, Austria. She served as its principal violinist until 1985.
Their ensemble strongly influenced and changed the performance and recording of early music by contemporary musicians, as it emphasized the use of period instruments.
Until 1968, Harnoncourt performed on a Jakob Stainer violin made in 1658. She switched to an instrument of 1665 vintage, also by a maker from the Absam region of Austria.
In addition to baroque violin, she has performed on the pardessus de viole (the smallest form of the viola da gamba), viola and viola d"amore. Alice Hoffelner and Nikolaus Harnoncourt married before 1953.