Born in the North-Rhine-Westphalian town of Bad Salzuflen, Matthias Löhlein took his first piano lessons at the age of five, and soon also began learning the violin. He started his studies at the Music Academy in Detmold majoring in sound engineering, graduating in 1983 with a sound engineer's diploma; he then began serious studies of the violin with Ernst Mayer Schierning. Between 1985 and 1988 Löhlein made repeated appearances with the German Chamber Academy, the "Ensemble Modern" and the German Bach Soloists and completed master classes with Gidon Kremer and Yong Uck Kim, among others. From 1989, Löhlein was Concert Master of the Württemberg Philharmonic in Reutlingen, before switching in 1992 to the Munich Philharmonic.
