Matthias Gallien first completed his violin studies with Lothar Friedrich at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in his home town. He studied viola with Felix Schwarz and Alfred Lipka in Berlin and with Erich Krüger and Ditte Leser in Weimar. He was a scholarship holder of the Orchestra Academy of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and held a "substitute" position at the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, today's Konzerthausorchester from 1997.

From 1999 to 2001 Matthias Gallien was a member of the Mecklenburg State Philharmonic Orchestra in Schwerin as Assistant Principal of the first violins, then principal violist of the Anhalt Philharmonic Orchestra in Dessau and from 2005 a member of the Staatkapelle Halle in the same position.

It was a concert in 1986, I was 12 years old and the Konzerthausorchester was still called the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester. I grew up with the sound of the orchestra. I sat with my parents in the 1st tier, 1st row in our subscription seats, which were still called ‘Anrecht’ back then, and I already had the desire to become an orchestral musician. Tchaikovsky's ‘Pathétique’ was on the programme, conducted by Claus Peter Flor. The triple fortissimo entry after the slow introduction in the first movement was a highly impulsive moment of shock and goosebumps that I still remember today!

When I was a child, I often listened to a rehearsal recording of the Staatskapelle Dresden with Rudolf Kempe. There was only room on this disc for the first three movements of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony - and the conductor's inspiring comments. It was extremely exciting for me to listen to what was communicated by the conductor and orchestral musicians during the rehearsals for this music. To this day, I always look forward to playing this symphony.

I have two - the Gendarmenmarkt with the concert hall and the stadium at the ‘Alte Försterei’ in Köpenick, which has been my second living room since 1976.