PAUL ROCZEK, born in 1947 in Vienna, studied the violin with Franz Samohyl and Max Rostal and receieved further musical inspiration from Sandor Vegh and Ivry Gitlis.  While still in his teens, he was a member of the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Vienna Soloists.

After winning several international competitions, he concentrated on chamber music serving for 30 years as the first violinist of the Austrian String Quarter and Webern String Trio performing with such renowned musicians as Vegh, Gitlis, Leister, Rampal, Berger, and Kontarsky.  He has been Professor of Violin at the Mozarteum since 1969.  Many of his students have become concertmasters of major orchestras, soloists, chamber musicians, and professors of music.  He has served many times as Acting Rector of the Mozarteum and from 1990-2002 was the artistic director of the institute's International Summer Academy.

In recent years he has been a visiting professor at the Menuhin Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland, the National Australian Conservatory in Melbourne, the China Conservatory in Beijing, the International Summer Academies of the Mozarteum and the Vienna Music University.  He has given master classes in conservatories and universities in Moscow, Brussels, Milan, Mannheim, Saarbrücken, Weimar, Munich, Prague, Talinn, Vilnius, London, Paris, Kobe, and Tokyo, as well as at Bowdoin, Indiana University, Temple University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Michigan.

As President of the Austrian National Youth competition “Musik der Jugend,” his mission is to nurture the next generation of Austrian musicans.  He continues to serve on the jury of major international violin competitions, such as the Mozart Competitions in Salzburg, and Augsburg, the Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna, the Louis Spohr Competition in Weimar, and the Georg Kulenkampff Competition in Cologne.

As a violinist he performs regularly with cellists Julius Berger and Andre Emelianoff, and with other colleagues and friends throughout the US, Europe, and the Far East.