Tag Archives: classical

MARIMBA/PERCUSSION – Francisco Manuel Anguas Rodríguez (University of Music and Drama Rostock)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

© Neda Navaee

Francisco Manuel Anguas Rodríguez was born in Seville, Spain in 1990. After com- pleting his bachelor’s degree at the Royal Conservatory of Music Victoria Eugenia in Granada, he began his master’s degree at the Rostock University of Music and Theater with Henrik M. Schmidt, Torsten Schönfeld, and Jan Frederick Behrend. In 2015 he studied at the Toho University in Tokyo at the invitation of the marimba legend Keiko Abe.

Already during his studies he performed in the Philharmonisches Orchester Vorpommern, serving as principal percussionist in 2016/2017 and principal timpanist in 2017/2018. He gained professional experience as an orchestral musician with the Staatskapelle Berlin and at the Komische Oper Berlin.

From 2015 to 2019 he worked at the Bayreuth Festival. His passion for historical performance practice brought him to international concert stages as principal timpanist with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. As a chamber musician, he is always searching for new tonal colors and combinations.

At his concerts with the Ukrainian Piano Duo Chipak-Kushnir and Elbtonal Percussion, he captivates his audience with his natural approach and his musicality. He is the winner of numerous competitions, including the Ian Murray Competition and the 2008 Ciutat de Llíria Percussion Competition in Llíria, Spain.

PIANO and CHAMBER MUSIC – Tomoko Ogasawara (University of Music Freiburg)/Matthias Ranft

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

After studying at the State University of the Arts in Tokyo where she was born, the pianist Tomoko Ogasawara continued her studies in Germany at the University of the Arts in Berlin and the University of Music in Freiburg im Breisgau, where she received the solo diploma with honors and went on to win 1st Prize in the German Hochschulwettbewerb.

Among her teachers were Georg Sava, Tibor Hazay and Georgy Sebok who influenced her artistic development and led her to early success, for example as finalist in the international competitions “Maria Canals” / Barcelona and “ Clara Haskil” / Montreux.

Since then concert engagements have taken Tomoko Ogasawara to the concert halls of the international music world (such as Berlin, Montreux, London, Paris, Tokyo, Jerusalem, Bangkok, Shanghai). She has played concerts together with Albrecht Mayer, Jörg Widmann and Tabea Zimmermann and regularly plays with the principals and leading musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Orchestra also in the context of chamber music formations, such as the piano trio “Franconia”, the ensemble “Abraxas” and at international festivals such as “Affinis” in Japan.

As soloist Tomoko Ogasawara has played, among others, with the Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Bamberg. She is featured in numerous radio broadcasts as well as CD recordings. In the season 2006/2007 Ogasawara performed the complete cycle of piano sonatas by W. A. Mozart.

Currently Tomoko Ogasawara passes on her musical experience through the teaching position she holds at the University of Music in Freiburg im Breisgau as well as regular master classes in Tokyo and Yokohama. Students of hers have won prizes in both national and international competitions.

The Hamburg born Matthias Ranft received his first cello at the age of seven and while still in high school he started studying at the Conservatory of Music Arthur Troester. His musical education lead him to Freiburg with Christoph Henkel and then later after winning scholarships from the DAAD and the Cultural Society of German Industry he went to study with Janos Starker in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. Before his graduating from the Conservatory in Freiburg he had already collected Orchestra experience between 1981 and 1983 as solo cello with the Hofer Symphony and won the 1984 Mendelsson Competition in Berlin.

Since 1985 Ranft has been the first cellist with the Bamberg Symphony/ Bayerish State Philharmonic. On the side he takes regular part in international festivals such as Affinis in Japan. He also concertizes as a chamber musician with the ensemble ABRAXAS, Trio FRANCONIA,  with Jörg Widmann, and with Frank Peter Zimmermann among others. He has also played as soloist under Gilbert Varga, Roger Norrington, Adam Fischer, Lawrence Renes and Jonathan Nott.
His musical accomplishments are shown through countless radio and CD recordings. He has shared his musical experience as a docent at the Freiburg Conservatory from 2001-2004 and at masterclasses throughout Japan. Matthias Ranft plays on a Giovanni Grancino cello from 1695. 

PIANO/PIANO DUO – Piano Duo Chipak-Kushnir (University of Music and Drama Rostock)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teachers:

© Neda Navaee

When Olha Chipak and Oleksiy Kushnir first met in 1998 while studying at the Lviv Music Academy in Ukraine, they could not have imagined where their musical partnership would take them. What they certainly knew, however, was that from that point on they would not only pursue a career as solo artists but also devote themselves to an equal degree to performing chamber music. They soon won their first international competition together (“Roma 98”), but the piano duo—like Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter she is from the legendary music metropolis Odessa on the Black Sea, he from the cultural melting pot of Lviv, where the first music conservatory in the Ukraine was founded as early as 1786—sought more than recognition by juries.

Thus their path as a duo took them to the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock where they majored in piano duo performance with Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl and in 2006 completed their degree in piano ensemble performance (concert exam – Konzertexamen).

The two have since begun to work at the institution as docents for piano and piano duo.

The duo has won numerous international competitions:

1st prize – Rom-98 (international competition)

2nd prize – TIM (Torneo Internazionale di Musica) (2000)

2nd prize – Chamber music competition in Caltanissetta (2000)

1st prize – “Premio Seiler“ in Palermo (2002)

2nd prize – “Palma d’Oro“ in Finale Ligure (2002)

1st prize – Piano duo competition in Bialystok (Poland) (2002)

1st prize – “Piano duo in 20th century“ (Premio Valentino Bucchi) (2003)

2nd prize – Dranoff International Two Piano Competition in Miami (2003)

1st prize – San Marino Piano competition (2006)

Winners of the International Web Concert Hall Competition (2012)

Success at these competitions led to concert performances at important venues in many European countries, the U.S., and China as well as guest performances at festivals such as the Festival “Virtuosi”(Ukraine), the Piano Festival in Trieste (Italy), the “Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern”. The artistry of the duo is documented in recordings for NDR (North German Radio), BR-Classic (Bayern Radio) and television and radio recordings in the Ukraine, Poland and San Marino.

www.chipak-kushnir.de

ART SONG “Conteporary Music is not dissonant per se”- Prof. Hendrik Bräunlich (University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” Leipzig)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

Hendrik Bräunlich, was born in Leipzig. Prof. Bräunlich’s pianistic talent, as well as his general involvement in music have been nurtured since early childhood.

From 1986 to 1992 he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Music Conservatory) “Felix Mendelssohn Bertholdy” in Leipzig with emphasis on vocal accompaniment, piano solo and instrumental accompaniment.  There, under the tutelage of Maestro Eugen Wangler, he developed a love for the singing voice, and a passion for accompanying it.

From 1992 to 1997 he studied song interpretation in the postgraduate program at the same conservatory with Lied professor and mentor Prof. Karl-Peter Kammerlander,  During this same period he was given the opportunity to work privately with Charles Spencer, with whom he studied most extensively, and Prof. Hartmut Höll – both great lied interpreters. In addition, he accompanied master classes of well-known singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier, Thomas Hampson and Jakob Stämpfli.  Mr. Stämpli, impressed with his work, invited him to accompany a master class in Sion (Suisse) during the Tibor Varga Festival.

Prof. Bräunlich’s success at the Varga Festival as well as his association with other famous artists led to additional invitations to accompany international singing competitions  such as the Schumann in Zwickau and the Bach in Leipzig. Charles Spencer used his influence to introduce Mr. Bräunlich to world-renowned mezzo-soprano, Christa Ludwig, with whom he became associated for many years – accompanying her master classes in Gumpoldskirchen near Vienna, Wiener Musikverein, Villecroze in France and a national conference of German-speaking singing teachers in Halle/Saale,) to name a few.

Prof. Bräunlich’s accompanying skills were indeed also acknowledged by the fact that he himself became a prize-winner: in 1993 he won the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Prize in Berlin,  and in the same year, the accompanying prize at the International Singing Competition in Tauberbischofsheim. In 1994 he received an award at the International Brahms Singing Competition in Hamburg, and in the 1997 Deutscher Musikwettbewerb awarded him a scholarship. In 1998 he was prize-winner at the first International Hilde Zadek Singing Competition in Passau.

The attention generated by these German music competitions enabled Prof. Bräunlich to start a concert career.  It also resulted in repeated invitations to accompany the above-mentioned competitions and master classes.

Prof. Bräunlich has recorded for all major German broadcasters. He has also participated in various CD projects, including the first recording of Lieder by Georg Göhler.  Other CD recordings include “Hausmusik bei Schumanns” with the Calmus Vocal Ensemble Leipzig, and the award-winning CD of the clarinetist Nicola Jürgensen.

In 1992 Prof. Bräunlich was offered a permanent full-time teaching position at the Leipzig Conservatory; the association with this institution continues to this day.  The pedagogical commitment he has to his students, and his support of their individual development is obviously enriched by his personal history of performing and accompanying.

In 2005, under the auspices of the ERASMUS exchange program, he was invited – together with Leipzig Conservatory Voice Prof. Dr. Jeanette Favaro-Reuter – to participate in coaching Lieder of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy at the Royal College of Music in London. During this period he also tought during the  Leipzig Summer Courses of Puccini’s “Tosca” as well as master classes of clarinettist Allan Key and Prof. Dr. Favaro-Reuter.

Over the last years Prof. Bräunlich has offered classes, free of charge, at the Leipzig Conservatory with primary emphasis on Piano Lied literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. He has offered addition classes on topics such as “Robert Schumann´s Lieder” and “Claude Debussy´s Lieder and Chants”.

His involvement with 20th and 21st century Lied has led Prof. Bräunlich to an even greater concentration on contemporary music. In 2022, together with soprano Lisa Fornhammar, he developed a special New Music Program. The theme for the 2023/24 session is “New Music is not per se dissonant”.

PIANO – Prof. Andreas Weber (University Mozarteum Salzburg)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

Andreas Weber began his pianistic education at the Music University of Cologne with Prof. Karin Merle and continued with Prof. Hans Leygraf at the University of Music in Salzburg.

His gives concerts as a soloist and as chamber musician in Europe and Asia, i.a. with the Trio Cartellieri and with the Violinist Albert Fischer.

Television recordings in Austria, Korea and China.

He holds many Masterclasses in Korea, China, Germany and Belgium and is member of jury in national and international piano competitions in Germany, Austria, China and Korea.

He made CD recordings with the Cellist Hanna Spielbüchler (Brahms, Schubert and Franck) as well with the Violinist Albert Fischer (Mozart, Brahms, Schubert) and with the Trio Cartellieri (Turina, Takacs, Piazzolla).

Since 2002 Andreas Weber is professor for piano at the University Mozarteum and since 2005 he is the head of the Leopold-Mozart-Institut for highly talented young students and is promoting young talents at national and international level.

Since 2009 he is professor at the International Summer Academy of Mozarteum.

Many of his students are prize winners of international piano competitions.

 

PIANO – Prof. Jacob Leuschner (Hochschule für Musik Detmold)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

© Sudi, Detmold

Jacob Leuschner, 
born in Freiburg in 1974, studied in Freiburg and Lübeck. His most important teachers were Helmut Barth, Michel Béroff, Konrad Elser and Leonard Hokanson.

Since 1989, he has performed as a soloist and sought-after chamber musician in many European countries, Japan, South Korea, China and the USA, and has been invited to numerous international festivals. He has been a regular participant in the funding project Bundesauswahl Konzerte Junger Künstler (Federal Selection Concerts Young Artists) held by Deutscher Musikrat.

The awards he has won at major piano competitions testify to his artistic stature: Viotti (Vercelli), Beethoven (Vienna), Schubert (Dortmund), Mozart (Salzburg), Leeds, Rina Sala Gallo (Monza), Deutscher Musikwettbewerb, Deutscher Hochschulwettbewerb – to name just the most important ones.

He is also the recipient of the Possehl Music Prize, the Kai-Uwe von Hassel Prize and the
Wiesbaden Mozart Prize.


Jacob Leuschner taught at the University of Music Lübeck, and was a Visiting Professor at the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar. From 2008 to 2014, he held a professorship at the University of Music in Cologne, and then followed a call to join the University of Music in Detmold. He regularly gives masterclasses in many European countries, Japan, China and Korea.

His repertoire ranges from the Virginalists to the present; one focus is the masters of Viennese classical music. He has performed the complete cycles of Mozart’s, Beethoven’s and Schubert’s piano sonatas at several occasions.
He also works as a juror at international piano competitions and as a publisher, and has dealt intensively with historical keyboard instruments. He is the founder and artistic director of the Brahms Piano Competition in
Detmold.

His discography includes not only numerous chamber music pieces, such as the complete works for cello and piano by Reger with Guido Schiefen (Oehms Classics), but also the late Beethoven sonatas and Liszt transcriptions. In addition to two solo CDs, he released a complete recording of Mozart’s sonatas for piano and violin in 2017 with violinist Keiko Urushihara (Nippon Acoustic Records), which was met with enthusiasm by the Japanese trade press and awarded the "Excellence Award" by the Japanese State Office for Culture.

In 2019, his recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations was published by the label „Perfect noise“.

Today, Jacob Leuschner is one of the most distinguished and versatile German pianists of his generation.

PIANO – Prof. Patrick O’Byrne (University of the Arts Bremen)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher: 

© Artem Yasynskyy

Pianist Patrick O’Byrne was appointed in 1985 to a professorship at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Stuttgart, assuming later the senior chair at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen.

His concert performances worldwide have included appearances with renowned orchestras and illustrious conductors, among others the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Bochumer Sinfoniker, the New York Virtuosi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under Sir Charles Groves, Franz-Paul Decker and Albert Rosen. Born in Dublin and raised in New Zealand, the pianist has received international awards for his interpretations of French, Spanish and contemporary music. His repertoire encompasses all styles.
 

파 트 릭 오 번 – Patrick O ’B yrne

Biography
더블린 태생 뉴질랜드 오클랜드 대학졸업
퀸 엘리자베스 2세 예술 장학금, 영국 런던과 파리, 국립 프라이부르크 대학졸업
(독일 DAAD 장학금)
Rosa Sabater, Alicia de Larrocha, Kendall Taylor, Vlado Perlemuter사사

1978년 뉴질랜드 음악대상, 동경 국제 콩쿨, 스페인 Jaén 콩쿨,
영국 Dudley 콩쿨, 마요르카 콩쿨 입상,1983년 José Iturbi 국제 콩쿨 대상.
스페인 음악대상, 국제비평가상

New York Virtuosi, Bochumer Sinfoniker, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, RTE Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra 등 유명오케스트라와 협연 및 TV 및 라디오 녹음 출연.

독일 국립 슈투트가르트 음대 교수 및 부학장 역임.
브레맨 국립음대 교수 및 학장 역임

그의 피아노 테크닉과 해석은 많은 국제 콩쿨 및 유명 마스터클래스에서 탁월한 교수
법과 해석으로 정평이 나 있으며, 훌륭한 제자들을 키워내고 있다.

 

VIOLIN – Prof. Marianne Boettcher (Berlin University of the Arts)/Kensei Yamaguchi

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher: 

Marianne Boettcher, violinist from the famous Berlin musician family, studied in Berlin under Professor Willy Kirch and Professor Michael Schwalbé, rounding off her studies in Geneva under Professor Henryk Szeryng. She teaches at the University of the Arts Berlin. She has gotten great recognition for playing classic and romantic music and has also become known as an interpreter of new music. She has given the first performances of many works written for her by contemporary composers.

She has won many prizes and has made a number of recordings for radio, television and the records industry in Germany and abroad. Extended concert tours have taken her repeatedly to the USA, Japan, Russia and almost every other country in Europe (for example in Rheinsberg, Prague, Vienna and Tallinn). She has also been a frequent guest performer at the Berlin Festival, the International Heinrich Schütz Festival in Sweden, the German Bach Festival in Berlin and the Vienna Festival.

The german president Johannes Rau awarded her 2003 the The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Kensei Yamaguchi started playing piano at age five. At twelve, he won the All Japan Student Music Competition, which allowed him to join the Toho-Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, the most prestigious music school in Japan, under the direction of Professor Hiroko Edo. Upon graduation he received a German National Scholarship to further pursue his studies at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, under Professors Erich Andreas and Pascal Devoyon.

Mr.Yamaguchi has participated in numerous international piano competitions. He is the winner of Third Prize in Porto International Piano Competition, Portugal (1998), First Prize at Senigallia International Piano Competition, Italy (1999), and of the prestigious First Prize at Monte Carlo Piano Masters, Monaco (2000).

His numerous concert activities include solo performances with Das Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Filarmonica Marchigiana, Italy, Monte Carlo Orchestre Philharmonique, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In addition he has appeared in solo recitals and chamber music concerts in most European countries, Japan, and the USA.

VIOLA – Prof. Piotr Szumieł (Rostock University of Music and Drama)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher: 

Piotr Szumieł, born in Warsaw in 1977, belongs to the group of the most versatile violists of his generation. At a young age he was the recipient of numerous prestigious prizes at international competitions, including winning the Jan Rakowski Viola Competition in Poznan in 1998, the special prize at the 36th International Instrumental Competition in Markneukirchen in 2001, a 2nd prize at the 9th International Johannes Brahms Competition in 2002 in Pörtschach (Austria) and 3rd prize at the Vienna International Viola Competition in 2004.

Between 2002 and 2008 he was a member and principal violist of the Dresden Philharmonic and the Dresden Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, and is a sought-after juror and teacher on master classes. Piotr Szumiel has been doing very intensive educational work for many years – he is a lecturer for viola and chamber music at the College of Music „Carl Maria von Weber” (since 2005), between 2013-2018 he was a lecturer at the “Karol Szymanowski” Academy of Music in Katowice and from October 2019 at the University of Music and Drama in Rostock, where he has been a professor since April 2020.

Piotr Szumieł has played in London’s Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Wiener Musikverein, Megaron in Athens, the Cologne Philharmonie, Citè de la musique Paris, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Konserthuset Stockholm, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Warsaw Philharmonic and much more…

As a chamber musician, he has worked together with the following artists: Alena Baeva, Martin Fröst, Gabriela Montero, István Várdai, Garrick Ohlsson, Vadym Kholodenko, Valentin Erben, Nils Mönkemeyer, Kevin Kenner, Igor Levit, Per Arne Glorvigen, Jörg Widmann, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Polina Leschenko, Ewa Kupiec.

As a soloist, Piotr Szumieł works with conductors such as José Maria Florêncio, Vladimir Kiradjiew, Anu Tali, Gérard Korsten, Hugh Wolf, Teowyn Evans, Ernst Kovacic, Petri Sakri, Baldur Bronnimann and has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Dresden Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Dresden, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and the National Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice.

Piotr Szumieł studied at the „Fryderyk Chopin” Music Academy in his hometown in the viola class of Prof. Stefan Kamasa, where he graduated with distinction in 2001. Later, he continued his viola studies with Prof. Wolfgang Klos and chamber music with Prof. Johannes Meissl at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he also graduated with distinction in 2010.

In addition to his solo and didactic activities, he devotes himself intensively to the “Apollon Musagète Quartet”, founded in 2006. In the two years of its existence, this ensemble has not only gained outstanding recognition from critics, but also from the juries of major music competitions. After winning international music competitions in Vienna and Florence, the quartet quickly established itself as a fixture on the European music scene after receiving the 1st prize and almost all special prizes at the 57th ARD International Music Competition.

Piotr Szumieł is the recipient of the “Young Poland” scholarship program of the Minister for Culture and National Heritage and the “Burletti Buitoni Trust Award” (2014) for outstanding artistic achievements with the “Apollon Musagete Quartet”.

The artist conducted workshops and master classes in Austria, Germany, Hong Kong and Poland. He took part in the work of the jury at international viola and chamber music competitions in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Katowice and Meissen.

VOICE — Wolfgang Klose (University of Music Rostock)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teachers: 

© Anne-Marie von Sarosdy

Stylistic variety, authentic sound and the synthesis of word and music are the most basic elements of singing for the tenor Wolfgang Klose. He received significant impetuses from Thomas Heyer, Mario Hoff and Konrad Jarnot as well as on master classes with Francisco Araiza, Julie Kaufmann and Kurt Widmer.

He performed e.g. Tamino (Magic Flute), Symon (Bettelstudent) and Pylades (Iphigenie on Tauris) on the opera stage. Besides from off stage productions he performed at Händelfestspiele Halle, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Bühnen der Stadt Köln.

His favorite work is dedicated to the oratorio stage: he is performing all main repertoire from Renaissance to contemporary music, mostly known for his interpretations of the cantatas and oratorios of the baroque and classical epoch. Being guest of numerous festivals and stages all over Europe and the USA he performs with symphonic orchestras and HIP ensembles.

In 2013 the he received a 1st price from Verband Deutscher Konzertchöre. Recordings of broadcasting services and CD labels are available such as WDR, rbb, SWR, Carus Verlag, Virgin Classics (former Label: EMI France) and cpo.

Having graduated at Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf and University of Music Mainz he has been teaching on university level for many years. Nowadays he teaches singing at Hochschule of Music und Theater Rostock and Folkwang University of Arts Essen.