Ariadne Daskalakis is an American violinist of Greek descent, currently based in Germany, and a unique performer and pedagogue of both modern and baroque violin. She has concertized in major venues around the world, appearing as soloist with ensembles including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Munich, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Stuttgart and Dortmund, the Berlin Symphoniker and the Athens National State Orchestra. In the dual role of leader and soloist she has worked extensively with the Chamber Orchestras of Cologne, Stuttgart and Prague, the English Chamber Orchestra, the New Rhine Chamber Orchestra, the Akademie for Ancient Music Berlin (Akamus), the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra and Concerto Koln. Following the release of her Vivaldi recording “7 with one Stroke” with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, she was featured by WDR and MDR German Radio, praised as a “universal specialist”.

Ariadne's experience in historical performance practice reaches back to the mid-1990's, during her tenure as leader of Ensemble Oriol Berlin and first violinist of the Manon Quartet Berlin. In 2009 she co-founded Ensemble Vintage Köln, which performs baroque chamber music ranging from trio to larger ensemble. Ariadne's stylistic versatility is reflected in a discography which includes concerti by Tartini, Haydn, Vivaldi and Kalliwoda and Sonatas by Biber, Handel, Fauré, Raff and Lutosławski. Her CDs have been „CD of the month“ at Tacet and Naxos, and her Tartini and Handel recordings „Selection of the month“ in the magazine „The Strad“. Early Music America praised: “With this release, Daskalakis propels herself into the front rank of historical violinists.” MusicWeb International described her as a “rising star of the violin...These albums are rewriting music history.” In August 2019 Volume 1 of her recording of the Complete Works for Violin by Franz Schubert was released on the label BIS.

Ariadne Daskalakis won prizes at the ARD International Competition and the St. Louis Symphony Strings Competition, as well as from the Mozart Society Dortmund, the Harvard Musical Association and Framingham State University, which awarded her the first Christa McAuliffe Medal. She enjoyed an education in music and humanities at the Juilliard School, Harvard University and the Hochschule der Künste Berlin. Her mentors included Eric Rosenblith, Eugene Lehner, Szymon Goldberg and Ilan Gronich.

In 2000 she became the youngest tenured Violin Professor at the Cologne Conservatory of Music and Dance (HfMT Köln). Her students hail from around the world, have been awarded international prizes and play in professional orchestras including the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the NDR Philharmonie Hannover, the Orchestra Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Badische Staatstheater Karlsruhe the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and the WDR Cologne Symphony and Radio Orchestras . In 2015 she was named Artistic Director of the European Academy of Music and Art “Palazzo Ricci” in Montepulciano, Italy. She is also the Artistic Director of the international chamber music festival “Music from Land's End Wareham”, founded in 2012, and a regular guest at the Portland Bach Virtuosi Festival.