Catharina Stenström Langelaar was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1961. In 1991 she married Geert Langelaar, also a member of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. The couple have two children.
She received her first piano lessons at the age of four and started learning the viola aged nine. From 1980 she studied concert viola at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Prof. Zahri Tchavdarov. A chamber music festival in Umeå attended by professors from Vienna gave her the opportunity to spend a year studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Prof. Siegfried Führlinger’s class. After completing her master’s degree in Stockholm in 1984 she began a diploma programme in Vienna, graduating in 1987 with distinction.
Catharina Stenström Langelaar’s first experience of orchestral playing came with the Stockholm symphony and opera orchestras. Her close connections with the Swedish community and embassy in Vienna give her many opportunities to play as a soloist and a chamber musician.
She has played viola with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 1986.