Sissy Schmidhuber was born in 1970 in Munich and received her first cello instruction at the age of seven. From 1983-87 she studied with Michael Hell, following which she began her studies at the Munich Music Academy, continuing her education in 1991 with Claus Kanngiesser at the Cologne Music Academy, where she passed her examinations with honors. In 1989 she was solo cellist in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, serving in 1990 in the same post in the Vienna Mozart Sinfonietta and in 1991 in the Bavarian Youth Orchestra Academy. At the start of the 1994/95 season, Sissy Schmidhuber became a member of the Munich Philharmonic.
