Franziska Schulz
Cellist, Baroque cellist
“A life with music is a constant process, and I am grateful for the experiences it has given me and the wonderful people I continue to meet.”
Franziska Veronika Schulz (born in 1996) was born in Wentorf near Hamburg and grew up south of Berlin. She received her first cello lessons from Kristin Hofmann at the age of 7, and the cello has been a part of her life ever since. Regular participation and awards at “Jugend Musiziert” and extensive orchestral experience with the Potsdam Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Brandenburg Youth Philharmonic shaped her path as a young musician. Concert tours took her abroad to Italy and Austria at an early age.
From 2017 to 2022, Franziska studied at the Berlin University of the Arts in the class of cellist Eva Freitag, graduating with a very good bachelor's degree. During her studies, she participated in numerous youth orchestra projects with the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie, the Junge Sinfonie Berlin, and the “Junges Philharmonisches Orchester Niedersachsen”, working with conductors such as Christoph Altstaedt, Sebastian Weigle, Marc Piollet, and Gabór Hontvari. She has performed concerts at the Berlin Philharmonic, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and the NDR Sendesaal in Hanover. Franziska received important musical inspiration from master classes with Prof. Jan Ickert, Prof. Conradin Brotbek, Prof. Reinhard Latzko, Antoaneta Emanuilova, and others.
Franziska Schulz currently has a temporary contract with the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg. There she plays a wide range of film music repertoire in concerts, as well as many studio productions. Most recently, in 2025, she was involved in a major production, “Das Kanu des Manitu”, conducted by Gregor Mayerhofer.
Franziska plays a cello by Jürgen Manthey from Leipzig and a baroque cello by Reinhard Ossenbrunner from Cologne.
Early music
Franziska had several encounters with early music in Berlin. Masterclasses with Midori Seiler, Christoph Dangel, Werner Matzke, Majella Münz, and Lea Rahel Bader inspired her on her path.
Good continuo playing is a true art, and playing on gut strings is an ideal sound that has fascinated Franziska ever since.
In 2021, she performed as a cellist with the Utopera ensemble in the opera production “Alcina” by Georg Friedrich Händel.
Historical performance practice
In 2024, Franziska participated in the Cuban-European Academy of the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble under the direction of Thomas Hengelbrock, with concerts at the Rheingau Music Festival and in the Kurhaus Wiesbaden.
Since 2024 Franziska is studying for her master's degree in baroque cello with Prof. Jan Freiheit at the “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theater” in Leipzig.
An important production at the HMT Leipzig in 2025 was the opera pasticcio “Venus & Adonis.”