Bernard Zinck

In 2021, he wrote an article “Dealing with Dystonia” that was published by The Strad.

He began his teaching career at the University of New Mexico. He has served on the faculty of the Köln Summer Institute in Montepulciano, the International Lyric Academy of Rome and the Tuscia Operafestival (Italy), Music in the Alps in Courchevel, Holy Trinity Summer Music camp in Haiti, and Eastern Music Festival where he served as “Distinguished Teaching Artist” in 2019. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, he will be unable to join the faculty of the Flaine Summer Academy in the French Alps in July 2020.

A committed educator, Dr. Zinck is currently Associate Professor of Violin and Chamber Music Director at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is also the artistic director and co-founder of the Lakeside Chamber Music that presents workshops in Illinois and the Loire Valley. In 2018, he was awarded the “Certificate of Excellence in Studio Teaching” by Civic Music Association in Milwaukee.

In 2016, he wrote an article “Coping and recovering from Injuries” that was published by String Magazine.

Since 2010, Zinck has piloted free community-based concerts and lectures, providing opportunities for senior citizen to hear music and lectures outside of the traditional concert and university campus venues.

In 2006, he wrote his doctoral thesis: "The Chevalier de Saint-George: His Violin Style and Eighteenth-Century Musical Aesthetics”. His thesis presents the eighteenth-century French creole violinist, Chevalier de Saint-George, a remarkable figure of the French Enlightenment whose compositions Zinck has researched, lectured on and performed in Montreal's Black History Month, Chicago Festival de la Francophonie, and Venice EACLALS triennial conference.

Since 2002, Bernard Zinck plays the Rogeri “Feibelmann”, a Giovanni Battista Rogeri violin, dated 1690 - a purchase made possible with the support of the Bass family. He also owns a Joseph Klotz violin, dated 1779, and a Joseph Henry bow, dated 1860.

In 1989, Zinck made his orchestral debut performing Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto with the Orchestre Symphonique de Tours (OST). Soon after, he performed Bach’s concerto for two violins with Pierre Amoyal whose agent, Thérèse Darras (Musicaglotz) started guiding his career. She started working with Zinck. After winning the Yehudi Menuhin Trust Award in 1992, he was invited by Yehudi Menuhin to perform in his Reims and Saumur music festivals. Since then, his talent and interpretive insight have made him a sought-after soloist who has performed extensively in concerts and recitals in Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Haiti, Brazil, South Korea and Japan.

After joining the Orchestre des Prix du Conservatoire for two years, he moved to the United States. In 1987, he won a Fulbright scholarship to attend the Juilliard School. There, he studied violin and chamber music with Joseph Fuchs and Felix Galimir. After obtaining both a Bachelor of Music (1991) and Master of Music (1992) from Juilliard, he returned to France. in 1992, he won the Prix de la Fondation Yehudi Menuhin in Paris. In 2006, he received a doctoral degree (DMA) from Temple University in Philadelphia; his thesis was on the eighteenth-century French creole violinist, the Chevalier de Saint-George.

At age six, he began studying violin at the Conservatoire Francis Poulenc (CRR) in Tours. At 16, In 1981, he entered the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP), where he studied with Gérard Poulet and Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux. At the CNSMDP, he won First Prize in both violin and Chamber Music.

Bernard Zinck was born in Tours, France, on May 30, 1965. His parents, both English teachers, met in London at the coronation of Queen Elisabeth II in 1952 while completing their doctoral degrees.