Em. O.Univ.-Prof.
Paul Roczek
Paul Roczek has taught at the Mozarteum University since 1969, where he holds a professorship in violin and serves as Quartet in Residence. Over the course of his career, he has held numerous leadership positions, including Head of Department, Institute Director, Deputy Rector and Artistic Director of the International Summer Academy, as well as the Rectorate’s Representative for International Relations. Today, Paul Roczek is regarded as one of the leading figures in violin pedagogy, particularly in the training and development of young musicians.
Paul Roczek’s pre-college class at the Mozarteum has long been regarded as a training ground for promising musical careers. He attracted international attention in 2014 when his student Ziyu He won the Eurovision Prize European Young Musicians for Austria, followed by further successes at major international competitions, including the Menuhin Competition in 2016. He subsequently became the youngest musician ever to appear as a soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic, performing Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto in a subscription concert.
Another prominent young artist who has worked with Roczek for several years is Clara Shen, who, at just 13, has already won numerous international competitions, appeared repeatedly on German television and given major concerts.
As a respected pedagogue, Roczek has served on the juries of many leading international competitions, including the Kulenkampff, Kreisler and Louis Spohr competitions, as well as competitions in Schöntal Monastery, Shenzhen, Singapore and the Mozart competitions in Salzburg, Augsburg and Zhuhai. He has been invited as a visiting professor to institutions including Bowdoin, Semmering, the Menuhin Academy, the China Conservatory, the Sommerakademie Mozarteum and Keshet Eilon, and has given masterclasses at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Moscow Conservatory, the Toho Gakuen School and the Shanghai Conservatory, as well as in major cultural centres such as Paris, Prague, Mannheim, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Vilnius, Tallinn, Gothenburg, Philadelphia and Dallas.
In recent years, Roczek has been involved in developing international youth competitions in Zhuhai and Sarajevo and serves as an adviser to the Polar Prize Concours in Gothenburg; in Austria, he chairs the Federal Advisory Board of the Austrian Music Competitions (prima la musica). His work in this field underscores his commitment to preparing talented young musicians, both technically and musically, for formal studies.