Tag Archives: Master

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. 

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. Klaus Sticken (Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

© Martin Teschner

Klaus Sticken is a versatile and distinctive pianist with over 25 years of concert experience. He performs in such venues as the Tonhalle Zurich, the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow, the Philharmonie in Kiev, the Megaron in Athens, the Konzerthaus in Berlin and the Musikhalle in Hamburg. His successes in the Concours Clara Haskil in Vevey, the Grand Prix Maria Callas in Athens and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan led, amongst other engagements, to concerts with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre Lausanne, the Ukraine State Orchestra and the Berlin Symphonic and Moscow Symphonic Orchestras. He undertakes concert tours throughout Europe and in the Far East.

His creative engagement with piano music is well displayed in the theme-based recitals for various radio stations, the Deutschlandradio, Radio Suisse Romande and Westdeutsche, Mitteldeutsche and Hessische Rundfunk and others. Sticken also works with experimentally minded partners such as the Kuss Quartet or the author and pianist Cord Garben and tries out new methods of presenting music and text with the poet Oskar Ansull. Recordings for the CD label Thorofon and many radio productions of seldom heard masterpieces by Clementi, Reubke, Strauss, Martin, Honegger, Korngold and Rota provide evidence of the wide-ranging nature of his repertoire.

Through his teachers Vladimir Krainev, Vitaly Margulis, Gyorgy Sebok and Alfred Brendel Klaus Sticken has become familiar with very varied approaches to music. Besides his concert activity serves as a professor of piano at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.

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.

 

PIANO – Tomoko Ogasawara (University of Music Freiburg)

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.

PIANO – Prof. Hardy Rittner (University of Music Freiburg)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher: 

Hardy Rittner is a pioneer in the field of historically informed performance of nineteenth century keyboard music. At the same time he is a member of a new generation of pianists who are at home both on period instruments and on the modern concert grand piano, interpreting a repertoire extending to contemporary music.

Hardy focuses on researching Chopin and making his insights tangible in concert performances. Hardy’s book “Die vergessene Cantilene. Frédéric Chopin’s misunderstood virtuosity” (dissertation for Dr. phil., publication in September 2022) brings new insights into the performance of Chopin’s music. Its key finding is that Chopin pursued a ‘vocal ideal’ influenced by bel canto (amongst others) even in his virtuoso passages. The book propagates a fundamentally different Chopin playing and leads to the conclusion that previous reference interpretations do not correspond to Chopin’s intentions. Hardy’s expertise shaped the new Chopin editions by Bärenreiter, where Hardy introduces notes on performance practice and fingerings based on historical models.

Hardy has performed in most European countries at such distinguished venues as Philharmonie Berlin, Konzerthaus Berlin, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kurhaus Wiesbaden, Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, Rudolf-Oetker-Halle Bielefeld, and Tonhalle Düsseldorf. Concert engagements have also led Hardy to the United States, Canada, China, South Korea, and Taiwan.

For the Detmold label MDG, the two-time Echo Klassik laureate has recorded the first complete rendition – on period instruments – of Johannes Brahms’s solo piano music; his discography includes a live recording of Brahms’s first piano concerto with the historically informed l’arte del mondo orchestra (conductor: Werner Ehrhardt), Chopin’s complete études, and Arnold Schönberg’s piano oeuvre.

Hardy received fellowships from Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and Herbert-von-Karajan-Centrum Vienna. From 2009−2012, he was supported by Bayer Kultur as a stART-Künstler.

After studying piano and fortepiano with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Siegbert Rampe at Mozarteum Salzburg, Hardy continued his education at Universität der Künste Berlin, where he studied piano with Klaus Hellwig (“Konzertexamen”) and music theory (“Diplom”) with Hartmut Fladt. Christian Zacharias, Krystian Zimerman, Ivo Pogorelich, Maria J. Pires, and Sylvain Cambreling were also among those who contributed to his education as a performing artist.

Hardy is a professor for piano and artistic research at Musikhochschule Freiburg and gives masterclasses in Germany and abroad.

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.