Leipzig Quartet Violinist Charged with Strangling New York Hotel Guest

Leipzig String Quartet 1st violinist, Stefan Arzberger has been charged with strangulation and burglary – after a serious incident on Friday morning in a Manhattan hotel.

It is alleged the German violinist was walking unclothed in the hallway of the Hudson Hotel, at Columbus Circle at 8am Friday morning before entering a 64 year old female guest's room – and forcefully strangling her neck to a point where blood vessels in her eyes were ruptured.

A source close to Arzberger, 42 has told the New York Post, that “ the episode happened after someone slipped a drug into Arzberger’s drink at the hotel bar” and that he has no memory of the incident.

It is understood the victim was not known to the violinist.

“He’s an upstanding member of society without a criminal record who has devoted his life to the arts,’’ Arzberger's lawyer Nicholas Kaizer has said in a statement “... he has no record anywhere, and we hope at the end of the journey, he has no record here.”

"Stefan became on Sat. 26th victim of a serious crime in New York City," the Leipzig Quartet have said via social media, "... We feel great solidarity and hope for a sudden end of that nightmare! Stefan, we are with you!"

Arzberger, who had recently finished a series of concerts at Lincoln Centre and Carnegie Hall, has been charged with strangulation and burglary and released on US $100,000 bail.

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