Born in Passau in 1991, FLORIAN WILLEITNER is a multiple award-winning German violinist and composer. His focus lies in integrating diverse musical cultures, including classical music, jazz and folk music. To this end he founded the artists’ platform Pool of Invention in 2019, together with his long-standing musical partner Ivan Turkalj He has created works for renowned orchestras, festivals and soloists, including the Tonkünstlerorchester Niederösterreich, the Stuttgart Music Festival, violinist Benjamin Schmid, tuba artist Andreas Hofmeir or Rolando Villazon and the Salzburg Mozart Week. His music is performed at renowned venues and festivals. He has given concerts all over Europe and beyond and is founding member of the „New Piano Trio“ and „First Strings on Mars“. In 2016 he won second prize at the International Zbigniew Seifert Competition, one of the world’s biggest jazz violin competitions. In 2017 he completed his Master’s degree at the Mozarteum University, having studied under Benjamin Schmid. For the EU summit of the 28 European leaders in September 2018, he created the work Mozart in the Shape of Europe, which consists of variations on the famous theme of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik in many European and non-European styles. Recently he was commissioned the contemporary compulsory piece for solo violin to be played at the International Mozart Competition 2020. He lives in Berlin and is an ACT recording artist since 2021.