Ionel Adrian Iliescu (born in 1981 in Bucharest) completed his diploma studies at the Lübeck Musikhochschule in 2006 under Christiane Edinger and his postgraduate studies at the Hamburg Musikhochschule in 2010 under Kolja Blacher. He also studied chamber music with Walter Levin of the Lasalle Quartet.

Adrian has won numerous prizes at home and abroad, including first prize for violin in the Romanian ‘Young musician’ competition every year from 1993 to 1999, first prize in the international ‘Jeunesse Musicale’ competition in Bucharest (1996), and, in the same year, the special prize at the ‘Kloster Schöntal’ international violin competition and first prize in the ‘Citta di Stresa’ international competition in Italy.

In 1997 he won a scholarship from the ‘Takasaki’ international competition for young violinists in Japan, and in 2006 he was awarded the Furtwängler Prize at Lübeck. He has taken masterclasses with the likes of Michele Auclair, Sachar Bron, Ruggiero Ricci, Wolfgang Marschner, Donald Weilerstein, and Kolja Blacher. Adrian has performed throughout Germany, France, Italy, England, Peru, and Romania, including concerto appearances with the Romanian Radio Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of Peru. In 2004, as part of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Adrian was selected by Ruggiero Ricci for a live broadcast performance of Paganini’s 24th Caprice. Between 2010 and 2013 he gave numerous solo performances with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in Japan, China, South America, and Europe.

From 2004 to 2010 Adrian was Leader of the Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 2010 to 2013 he led the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. Since 2013 he has been Leader of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra under Jeffrey Tate. Adrian plays on a Maggini violin from 1604.