Ronja Macholdt was born in Germany in 1999. She began taking piano and recorder lessons in 2004. In 2011 she discovered the flute for herself and received lessons with this instrument for several years as a young student with Prof. Paul Dahme at the HfMDK Frankfurt. In 2017, she began her bachelor's degree in transverse flute with Prof. Christina Fassbender at the University of the Arts in Berlin.
In master classes, she received important musical impulses from Prof. Stephanie Winker, Prof. Andrea Lieberknecht, Prof. Michael Martin Kofler, Mathieu Dufour etc. She is also a scholarship holder of the International Music Academy Liechtenstein and takes part in the intensive weeks and activities of the academy.
Since she was seven, Ronja has been awarded numerous first prizes in various national and international competitions on the flute. In 2017, she won the “Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition” for her outstanding performance, combined with a concert in the “Auditorium Parco della Musica” in Rome. In 2018, she won a 4th prize at the “Dutch International Flute Competition”. Furthermore, Ronja is multiple 1st prize winner in savings bank competitions, the Beethoven Bonnensis competition and "Jugend musiziert". In both 2015 and 2016, she received the 1st prize in the national competition in the categories “flute solo” and “duo piano and a woodwind instrument”. In 2015 she also won the subsequent follow-up competition "WESPE". In 2017 she was awarded the “Carl Schroeder Prize” and the prize for a solo concert with the Loh Orchestra in Sondershausen as the winner of the Carl Schroeder Competition. In 2019 she qualified for the “Prague Spring International Music Competition”, which will be held in Prague in May.
In 2014 Ronja worked with members and lecturers of the International Ensemble Modern. She gained orchestral experience in the State Youth Symphony Orchestra of Hesse and the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck. Since 2016, she has played in the Federal Youth Orchestra, among others, under conductors like Sir Simon Rattle. She has also been a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie since 2017. She has worked on CD recordings, television and radio productions as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician, including HR television, WDR and Deutschlandfunk.
In spring 2018 Ronja was accepted as a scholarship holder in the German National Academic Foundation. She was also awarded scholarships from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the International Ensemble Modern Academy. Since 2019 she has been a scholarship holder of the association Yehudi Menuhin - Live Music Now Berlin e.V. together with her Bläserquintett Berliner Luft.
Photo: Sophie Baubin