Tag Archives: music

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.

Theaterbus: „Hänsel und Gretel“ am Staatstheater Mainz

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |
© Falko Hönisch

Der zweite Theaterbus der Internationalen Musikakademie Sankt Goar führt in diesem Jahr am 2. Adventssonntag wieder an das Staatstheater Mainz:

Hänsel und Gretel

Wohl kaum eine Oper wird so sehr mit der Weihnachtszeit assoziiert, wie dieses Meisterwerk des Komponisten Engelbert Humperdinck, der auch einige Jahre seines Lebens im Oberen Mittelrheintal, um genau zu sein, in Boppard verbracht hat.

Was die Presse (AZ, Wiesbadener Kurier) über diese Inszenierung sagt:

„Wie Regisseur Erik Raskopf in seiner feinsinnigen Ausgestaltung von Hänsel und Gretel charakterstarke Sänger, romantische Klangteppiche, aufwendige Masken und Kostüme und magische Wälder in Engelbert Humperdincks Märchenklassiker zusammenschmilzt, überzeugt auf ganzer Linie.“

Was Zuschauer sagen:

„Wir haben die Aufführung gestern gesehen. Das Orchester und die Darsteller waren durch die Bank weg in glänzender Spiellaune und haben uns von der Ouvertüre an verzaubert.“

„Wir haben die Aufführung heute gesehen und die war wirklich super; die Schauspieler top (vor allem Hänsel und der Vater, weil ich mich mit den am meisten identifizieren kann).“

Einen ersten kleinen Eindruck über die Inszenierung am Staatstheater Mainz erhalten Sie auch hier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dbI_nULIJg

Foyer Concert: „His name ought not to be Bach, but Ocean.“

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Latvian pianist Georg Kjurdian presents in this concert parts of his recently published CD. 

Amongst other pieces, the program includes works for the piano solo composed by J.S. Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Anton Webern.

Foyerkonzert: Mozarts Leben – Ein Vortrag mit Musik

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |
Roman Salyutov

Pianist und Dirigent Roman Salyutov referiert mit launigen Texten und musikalischen Beispielen am Flügel über W.A. Mozart. Musikinteressierte können auf diese Weise Einblicke in das Leben eines der wichtigsten Komponisten der Klassik erhalten.

Theaterbus: „Die Eroberung von Mexico“ am Staatstheater Mainz

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

© Falko Hönisch

Ein neues Angebot macht die Internationale Musikakademie Sankt Goar und initiiert erstmalig einen Theaterbus, der die Menschen aus dem Oberen Mittelrheintal bequem zu Oper- und Musiktheateraufführungen in der näheren und weiteren Umgebung bringen wird.

Zu außergewöhnlichen Angeboten an verschiedenen Theatern und Opernhäusern, die erlebenswert sind, organisiert die Musikakademie zusätzlich zu den im Oberen Mittelrheintal stattfindenden Konzerten, entsprechende Theaterfahrten.

Zum Anfang dieses neuen Projekts, das das Leben und Wohnen im Oberen Mittelrheintal noch lebenswerter gestalten soll, wird mit einer zeitgenössischen Oper ein besonders mutiger Aufschlag gemacht:

Am 2. April 2023 geht es ins Staatstheater Mainz zur letzten Aufführung der von der Presse umjubelten Produktion „Die Eroberung von Mexico“ von Wolfgang Rihm, in der auch der Leiter der Internationalen Musikakademie Sankt Goar, Falko Hönisch, zu erleben ist.

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. Konrad Engel (Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

© Irène Zandel

Born in the region of Frankfurt/Main, Konrad Maria Engel grew up in a mainly scientifically oriented family. However it came clear already during his early childhood that music would be his vocation some day. More than a dozen scholarships, awards and many prizes at international competitions reinforced that impression over the years, most importantly to mention the German National Music Competition, Bach-Competition Leipzig and a first prize at the international Chopin-Competition Hanover.

His concert career – now almost 40 years of stage experience – took him all over the northern hemisphere, across Europe, Asia and the US. As a soloist he performed with numerous renowned orchestras and at several international festivals. His repertoire did never exclude any style or period and included all kinds of keyboards from cembalo to fortepiano and various historic grand pianos.

Since his younger days Konrad Engel is also very much dedicated to chamber music and Kunstlied. Just to mention a few long term highlights, there was the applauded „Trio Corrado” together with Konradin Seitzer (Violin) and Konrad Haesler (Cello) as well as various performances together with Leonid Gorokhov, Markus Becker, Mareike Morr, Sharon Kam and many other renowned partners. Beyond that he was member of bigger ensembles as well as conducting two chamber orchestras for several years.

Over the last two decades he discovered his great passion for teaching and rather focused his career on education since several years. After getting first experiences in teaching at the municipal music school Hanover, a lectureship at the University for Arts Bremen in 2011 was an important leap.

From 2012 to 2018 he held a substitutional professorship at Hanover Music University, where he first got in touch with the education of highly talented young students. In 2017 he got a full professorship at the University „Hanns Eisler“ Berlin and the honour to become head of piano department at the „Musikgymnasium C.P.E. Bach“ in addition.

By now amongst his students are many prizewinners at international competitions such as Sendai/Japan, Aarhus/Denmark, Mendelssohn/Berlin, Schumann/Zwickau, Liszt/Weimar etc.

He started his own academic studies in music education at Hannover Music University and

finished his third Diploma with the „Konzertexamen“ in 2006 after being a student of Karl-Heinz Kämmerling for many years. His education was also enriched by important impulses from John O’Conor (Wilhelm-Kempff-Academy Positano), Bernhard Wetz and Gerhard Schroth (Frankfurt) as well as chamber music lessons by Vassilia Efstathiadou, Antje Weithaas, Grainne Dunne.

In his sparse free time Konrad Engel is interested in many other subjects, such as astronomy and technology but also visual arts, history and philosophy – never to forget about classic cars.

His motto actually couldn’t be described better than in Eisler’s words: „Who seeks to understand music only, won’t understand music at all.“

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.

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.

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.