During the FIFA World Cup half-time entertainment, a Venezuelan conductor led the New York Philharmonic Orchestra alongside Coldplay – and there’s one Canberran who knew the conductor personally.

Daniel Röhn is an international violin virtuoso quietly living a suburban life in Farrer – a world away from Europe’s finest philharmonic orchestras and New York’s Carnegie Hall where he’s performed.

Shopping at a local IGA no less, is a world-class musician who once performed to 20,000 people in his native Germany when the Olympic torch passed through.

We have Covid to thank.

Daniel fled Europe and the pandemic to be with family, and to say it was a culture shock would be a vast understatement.

He has gone from playing in the Berlin Philharmonic in front of 2,500 people, to a small solo recital at the modest Wesley Music Centre in Forrest.

When I caught up with Daniel, who’s previously lived in Paris and Munich, it was a tad embarrassing trying to find a cafe still open in Kingston on a Wednesday afternoon.

He arrived carrying his 1846 Italian-made violin (he used to play a violin dating back to 1617) and his usually tied-back long blonde hair was out.

“Everyone thinks I’m trying to look like a surfer, but it’s far from that,” Daniel said. “It’s just my late grunge phase I always say.”

The 46-year-old is modest about playing Europe’s grand concert halls like Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and he’s exceedingly polite about adjusting to Canberra’s slower pace.

“It is a different life, maybe it’s the chance to start a different, new life,” he said. “It’s a lot quieter. I always speak of my old life and the new because it really is like that. It is a big adjustment.”

Daniel can’t even source quality hair for his violin bow in our quaint capital.

“I am heading overseas soon to play in the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, so I can see my friends and I can re-hair my bows,” he said.

Whether you’re a classical music buff or not, anyone can appreciate that few play the fiddle like Daniel.

The third-generation violinist has been performing professionally since he was 16 and he dares to play music that most violinists fear.

He recently stunned a small crowd (this writer included) at Wesley Music Centre.

“Without a question, [Paganini’s Caprices and Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas] belong to the most difficult things you can play on the fiddle and that’s why I do it,” Daniel said. “Also because it’s wonderful music, but I chose it also because of the challenge to go to the absolute limit.”

Daniel said a violinist had to achieve this standard when really young, “because it won’t come later”.

“The physicality of it depends on what repertoire you play – all these neck-breakers that I force myself on, I love to play that and now is the time. It’s no use if I play something that anyone can play, it has to be something a bit spectacular.”

Ever the diplomat, Daniel said Canberra had its virtues.

“Every appearance, every concert counts,” he said. “If it’s small or big, you still have to play. The performance is the same.”

Daniel adores watching old ‘60s movies at the National Film and Sound Archive, like a recent Ingmar Bergman movie in Swedish (he’s fluent in three languages), but he said he’s yet to discover our “city centre”.

“The real thing which I do not understand is, where is everything?” he genuinely asks. “You go somewhere and you think, I am in the heart of the city now with all the shops. There is no such place. I think there are many different town centres, but none of them is a city centre.”

Incredibly, Daniel is offering local violin and viola lessons in the German tradition, surely a rarity in Canberra.

“What I want to do is to give something, which maybe not too many others are here to give,” he said. “I can give something that others have given to me … I still play because this is what my whole being is.”

Daniel Röhn School of Violin and Viola: danielroehn.com or [email protected] or 0434 113 062.