Vineta Sareika-Völkner has won the audition for the position of first concertmaster with the Berlin Philharmonic.

The news marks the first time a woman holds this position in the orchestra’s history.

Sareika-Völkner is a Latvian violinist who studied at the Paris Conservatoire National under Gérard Poulet and at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium under Augustin Dumay. She has worked with Ida Haendel, Ivry Gitlis, Zakhar Bron, Mauricio Fuks, and Sergej Krylov.

She was the first concertmaster with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic (2011-2013) and was regularly a guest concertmaster with the orchestra of the Brussels Royal Opera and the Brussels Philharmonic. She worked with the Artemis Quartet from 2012 to 2021, and has been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic since May 2022.