Anna Katharina Kränzlein, also known as Anna Katharina, (born 7 November 1980 in Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany) is a German violinist. She is most known for her quick and varied technique. She is the youngest founding member of Medieval folk rock/folk metal band Schandmaul. Biography Kränzlein grew up in Puchheim near Munich and made first musical experiences aged five when she autodidactically learned to play the recorder. Within the next ten years she expanded her repertoire with the western concert flute whereby she won the Bavarian state level awards of Jugend musiziert two times. At age eight she received her first violin lesson by Simone Burger-Michielsen, who kindled Kränzlein's love for classical music. From age twelve on, she played with the newly founded Puchheim Youth Chamber Orchestra and was concertmaster under Peter Michielsen from 1997 on who also used to be her violin teacher for several years. Concert tours with this orchestra led her to Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Japan. Later she played violin and viola with the Bavarian State Youth Orchestra. She is an eightfold winner of the German national Jugend musiziert prize, for solo violin and ensembles. Aged 14 she also learned to play piano because this is the requirement to study violin at musical schools in Germany. Her teacher was the mother of later Schandmaul guitarist Martin Duckstein. In the spring of 1998, her band Schandmaul would gather for the first time. Originally the project had only been planned for a single concert but the great request for CDs during their performance in Gröbenzell made them continue the band. Their recordings sold more than 300,000 items. The last album Anderswelt peaked at rank 8 of the German charts and their tours saw sold-out venues in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Benelux states. Kränzlein came across the hurdy-gurdy in 2000 when she met hurdy-gurdy maker Karl Riedl and built an instrument with him for her specialised course in music at school. Since the second Schandmaul album, she plays the hurdy-gurdy with the band, since the fourth album she also participates in texting and composing and with the fifth album she also contributed viola parts. From 1998 to 2000, Kränzlein read music at the Munich Conservatory with Urs Stieler. In 2001, she moved to the Saar University of Music at Saarbrücken where she studied with Ulrike Dierick. There she played with the University Orchestra under Max Pommer and