Summary

Inspired by a music-loving uncle, Laurentius Dinca began playing the violin at the age of five. After training and studying in Bucharest and Lübeck, he was engaged as concertmaster with the orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk before becoming a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s first violin section in 1984. In this episode of our series The Berliner Philharmoniker and their Instruments, Dinca tells of his first encounter with the then chief conductor Herbert von Karajan and the special sound of his 17th-century Italian instrument. In addition to his life as an orchestral musician, which is illustrated in the portrait with excerpts from Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony under the conductors Karajan, Abbado, Rattle and Petrenko, chamber music also plays a major role for Dinca: he is currently a member of three of the Philharmoniker’s chamber ensembles.