Star sign: Scorpio
Favourite drink: good dry red wine and still water
Favourite food: pizza and pasta at Il Mulino’s or Mama’s restaurant
Oasis: my little cabin in the mountains

Music career:
It all started with the Flötenpeter books when I was four. My big sister was learning the soprano flute at the time, so I got hold of these flute lessons through her. You had to paint each note a different colour, and that’s how I learnt the flute. After that, I had 10 years of proper lessons, taking part in my first “Jugend Musiziert” competition at the age of 6.
I played the violin 8 times in competition, both solo and ensemble, and my best memory is our trip to Cologne to play in the State Competition with my quartet – we played music and celebrated late into the night on the banks of the Rhine.
But I ought to be telling you this in the right order… so I discovered the violin when I was eight, well actually that’s when I found my first violin teacher, Simone Burger-Michielsen. Later, I had lessons with her husband, Peter Michielsen, who is also leader of the Puchheimer JugendKammerOrchester, where I played for 10 years (as concertmaster, travelling to Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Belgium and Japan etc, amongst other things) – take a look at the Circus Krone DVD. I’m still great friends with both of them, as they were the ones who gave me my love of classical music.
I studied in Saarbrücken (in Frau Prof Dierick’s class) and Würzburg (with Max Speermann, where I am still a graduate student). I graduated in the violin in March, but still study with Jorge Sutil (Münich Philharmonic).

Other instruments: piano, hurdy-gurdy, viola and classical song
Other projects: Neuland: I released my first solo album in April 2007 – find out more at www.annakatharina-neuland.de and www.myspace.com/akneuland.
Classical music: (violin/piano) with my pianist Aleksandra Sawicka-Steurer
Folk project: an ensemble, where we play anything from tango to Latin American music.

So what do I do all day? Well for a start I practise, practise and practise some more to stay at professional level on the violin, which is never-ending, of course, but that’s fine, because it’s SO much fun
Apart from that, I see my lovely friends as much as I can, and I enjoy having meals cooked for me…
I have quite a big garden, and love working in it, but I don’t get to do it on a regular basis.
And jogging to good music is dreamy….
And of course I love good books, but I’m afraid I just don’t have the time….Why? Well, I worked it out: all in all, including Schandmaul and my own stuff too, I did over100 concerts last year.

Instruments when performing with Schandmaul:
A 19th century French classical violin with Schertler pickup.
A Studio Novello hurdy-gurdy made by Helmut Gotschy.