Artistic brilliance and innovative programming are the hallmarks with which Nils Mönkemeyer has made a name for himself as one of the most internationally successful violists and has helped the viola gain enormous attention. As an exclusive artist with Sony Classical, he has released numerous albums in recent years that have been highly praised by the press and honoured with awards. Mönkemeyer’s programmes range from discoveries and first recordings of original viola literature from the 18th century to modern music and his own arrangements. The most recently released CDs are recordings of Walton, Bruch and Pärt with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Markus Poschner as well as the latest album, on which Nils Mönkemeyer and the ensemble l’arte del mondo combine Paganini’s »Sonata per la Grand’ Viola e Orchestra« with arrangements of cello and bassoon concertos by Antonio Vivaldi and »L’arte del arco« by Giuseppe Tartini. A new album in collaboration with recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger was released in spring 2023.

Nils Mönkemeyer works with conductors such as Andrej Boreyko, Nicholas Collon, Reinhard Goebel, Vladimir Jurowski, Joana Mallwitz, Andrew Manze, Cornelius Meister, Mark Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Markus Poschner, Mario Venzago and Simone Young and performs as a soloist with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester and Konzerthausorchester Berlin, SWR Symphonieorchester, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Berliner Barock Solisten.

As a musician, Nils Mönkemeyer also pursues his heart’s desire to build bridges with music and make it accessible to those who are disadvantaged in life. To this end, he launched the chamber music festival »Klassik für Alle« together with Caritas Bonn in 2016.
Mönkemeyer has been a professor at the Munich University of Music and Theatre since 2011, where he himself once studied with Hariolf Schlichtig. Previously, he held a two-year professorship at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden and an assistant professorship at the Escuela Superior Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. In 2022/2023, he held a guest professorship at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki.

Nils Mönkemeyer plays a viola by Philipp Augustin.