Thomas Rühl
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Born in Regensburg in 1978, violist Thomas Rühl received his first violin and viola lessons at the age of nine. After graduating from secondary school, he began studying viola in 1998 with Gertrude Rossbacher at the Bremen Music Academy. In 2002 he took up studies with Barbara Westphal at the Lübeck Music Academy, where he received the artistic diploma in 2005 and a postgraduate degree in 2008, both with distinction. He attended master courses with Jürgen Kussmaul, Heidi Castleman, James Dunham and Walter Levin and received the award of the Marie-Luise Imbusch Foundation. From 2002 to 2005 Thomas Rühl was principal viola of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. An internship took him to the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg in 2003/04. For six years, he taught at the Lübeck Music Academy; today he coaches for Jeunesses Musicales of Germany. Since 2006 he has been a member of the viola section of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra.