The son of composer Boris Blacher, violinist Kolja Blacher studied with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School, and continued his work with Sandor Végh at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Blacher's repertoire extends from Bach to contemporary music, and he has collaborated with composers Magnus Lindberg, Hans Werner Henze, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, and Brett Dean. He has appeared with many orchestras around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and Camerata Bern, among others. Blacher has taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg and the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. He has recorded on many labels, including Deutsche Grammophon, Haenssler, Naxos, CPO, and Oehms Classics.