Gerhart Hetzel, born on April 24, 1940, in Neu-Werbaß, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, was an Austrian violinist and concertmaster. He began his musical education at five and studied under Otto Kobin in Magdeburg. In 1950, he performed publicly with Kobin, playing Johann Sebastian Bach's Doppelkonzert für 2 Violinen d-Moll BWV 1043. At 13, Hetzel moved to Waldshut and trained in Luzern. He served as concertmaster for the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin from 1963 until joining the Wiener Staatsoper in September 1969, where he also became a member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and was appointed first concertmaster in 1972. He taught at the Musikhochschule München from 1968 to 1986 and later at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien until his death on July 29, 1992, during a mountain hike in Salzburg.
