Benjamin Günst was born in Kiel on August 2, 2002. He graduated from school in 2021 with the Abitur. He started violin lessons at the age of seven. From August 2012 he was a pupil of Anne Schnyder. From 2018 to 2021 he was a junior student with Prof. Heime Müller at the the Lübeck University of Music. From the winter semester 2021 he began his bachelor's degree with Prof. Antje Weithaas at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin. He has also been attending regular piano lessons since September 2012.

With both instruments, he has already won several national prizes at the Jugend Musiziert competition. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, he received three first prizes with the highest score at national level. In spring 2020, he received the Young Talent Award and a scholarship from the Chursächsische Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a scholarship holder of the Marie-Luise-Imbusch Foundation, the Musikfreunde Kiel Foundation, the Stähler Foundation in Stade and, for the past six years the Deutschen Stiftung Musikleben, which has repeatedly made various concerts possible for him and provides him with high-quality instruments, such as a violin by Andrea Guarneri (Cremona, 1668), which he played from 2019 to 2022. Benjamin Günst received the biennial Culture Prize of the City of Kiel in June 2024.

He gave his first concerts as a soloist with orchestra at the age of eleven. Since then he has been a guest at orchestras such as the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra and the Kammerakademie Potsdam, with whom he has performed works such as the violin concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, Lalo and Sibelius.

In addition to his solo activities, he has already taken part in several chamber music and master classes at home and abroad with professors such as Ana Chumachenco, Vadim Gluzman, Gerhard Schulz, Eberhard Feltz, Nora Chastain and Kolja Blacher, among others, several times as part of the Kronberg Academy. He is also an enthusiastic chamber musician and is already a recurring guest at several festivals, such as the Heidelberger Frühling, the Schleswig- Holstein Music Festival, the Brahms Festival in Lübeck, the Musikalischer Sommer Ostfriesland and the Summer East Frisia and the "Playing Island" festival on the island of Rügen. At the Heidelberger Frühling in 2024 was a member of the "Brahms.LAB", a group of young, top-class musicians who dedicate themselves to the conception of their own concerts and and concert formats. In addition, he worked as a duo partner of Daniel Hope on his album 'DANCE!', released by Deutsche Grammophon in February 2024.

Since spring 2022, Benjamin Günst has been playing a violin (London anno 2020) by Stefan- Peter Greiner, which was kindly made available to him by Dr. Monika Wulf-Mathies. Since December 2023, he has also been playing a violin by Carlo Bergonzi (Cremona anno1733), made possible by a loan from Florian Leonhard Fine Violins.

First Round

• W. A. Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4 KV 218
  • 1. Allegro (9')
• N. Paganini: Caprices for solo violin op. 1, No. 11 (4')
• J. S. Bach: Sonata No. 1 G minor BWV 1001
  • 2. Fuga (6')
• C. Franck: Sonata A major
  • 4. Allegretto poco mosso (6')

Second Round

• F. Schubert: Rondo in B minor for violin and piano, D 895 (15')
• B. Bartók: Sonata for Solo Violin Sz. 117 (26')
  • 1. Tempo di ciaccona
  • 2. Fuga. Risoluto, non troppo vivo
  • 3. Melodia. Adagio
  • 4. Presto
• P. R. Flys: Sonata for solo Violin (6')
  • 1. Lento capriccioso - Vivo
  • 2. Largo - Allegretto
• J. Hubay: Fantasie brillante on Bizet's Carmen op. 3, No. 3 (9')

Piano: Yukako Morikawa (UdK)

Finale

• S. Prokofjew: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major (21')
  • 1. Andantino
  • 2. Scherzo: Vivacissimo
  • 3. Moderato – Allegro moderato