Kurt Sassmannshaus holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair for Classical Violin at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). His students perform as soloists, hold appointments at major conservatories and orchestras in Europe, Asia and America, and play in renowned string quartets.

He founded the Starling Preparatory String Project in 1987 in Cincinnati as a training ground for exceptional young string talent from the United States and abroad. Alumni from program have won prizes in major competitions, including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Naumburg in New York.

His pioneering website www.violinmasterclass.com was published in 2004. Since the launch, the site has given millions of students, parents, and teachers access to sophisticated knowledge about violin technique, practice methods and performance. He continues to expand the pedagogic works in Bärenreiter’s Sassmannshaus Tradition, continuing the work started by his father Egon Sassmannshaus.

His first teachers were his father, Gert Hoelscher, and Conrad von der Goltz in Würzburg, Germany. He studied in Cologne with Igor Ozim and at New York’s Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay. He worked closely with her both in Cincinnati and at the Aspen Music Festival and School. In the summer, he has been teaching at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine since 2015.