Tag Archives: Professor

Foyerkonzert: Pro Musica II – Meisterkurs-Abschlusskonzert Klavier

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

© Marc Jones

Zum ersten Mal bringt der deutsch-französische Pianist und Pädagoge Heribert Koch sechs pianistische Schützlinge zu einem Meisterkurs nach Sankt Goar:

Diese lassen sich über mehrere Tage von Prof. Heribert Koch (Musikhochschule Münster) im Umfeld der UNESCO-Welterbestätte Oberes Mittelrheintal, im Herzen der Rheinromantik weiterbilden und werden in einem Abschlusskonzert dieses Meisterkurses Klavier mit Prof. am Sonntag, den 7. April 2024 um 17 Uhr im Glasfoyer der Rheinfelshalle werden Quanyi Dong, Defne Erdem, Qi Fang, Klaudia Gjini, Dongfang Lie und Bingjue Luan mit Werken für das Klavier solo am Bechstein-Konzertflügel mit dem Erarbeiteten zu erleben sein.

Foyerkonzert: Pro Musica I – Meisterkurs-Abschlusskonzert Klavier

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Auch in diesem Jahr stellen wir wieder alle Abschlusskonzerte der verschiedenen Meisterkurse mit Dozentinnen und Dozenten und jungen Künstlerinnen und Künstlern aus aller Welt unter den Titel: Pro Musica

Denn diese Aspirantinnen und Aspiranten leben und brennen für die Musik und widmen ihr sich ein paar Tage im inspirierenden Umfeld der Stadt Sankt Goar, zwischen den Burgen Katz und Maus, zu Füßen der Burg Rheinfels, unweit der Loreley, um von einem Meister oder einer Meisterin des Fachs neue Impulse vermitteln zu lassen.

© Stephan Reising

Den Anfang dieses Jahr macht wieder der Pianist und Pädagoge Hardy Rittner, seines Zeichens Professor an der Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau. Denn Herr Rittner ist ein Exeget im Feld der historischen Aufführungspraxis der Klaviermusik, die der Klassik und der Romantik entspringt.

Die besonderen Instrumente aus der Zeit des Übergangs vom 19. auf das 20. Jahrhundert, die der Internationalen Musikakademie Sankt Goar dafür zu Verfügung stehen, ermöglichen es den jungen Musikerinnen und Musikern in die pianistische Klangwelt der Romantik eintauchen zu können.

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. Heribert Koch (Münster University of Music)

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

Teacher:

© Marc Jones

Heribert Koch initially received his training at the Universities of Music in Cologne and Karlsruhe and attended master classes with renowned musicians, among others with Tatjana Nikolajewa and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. Finally, the encounter with Peter Feuchtwanger, with whom he continued his studies in London, became particularly formative and Heribert Koch subsequently assisted him on his master classes.

The international Piano Journal, which recently published an extensive portrait of him, describes him as „one of the most inspiring and creative pianist-teachers working in Europe today“.

Beyond concert programmes with major works from the standard repertoire, he frequently performs unfamiliar compositions, often presenting them in the form of lecture recitals. In this context he also acts as an editor. He received particular recognition for his profound research about César Franck, whose early piano works he made accessible to musicologists and performing musicians in well-respected first editions (publisher Dohr, Cologne).

Heribert Koch is a member of the Presidium of the EPTA Germany (European Piano Teachers Association) and served as European President of the Association in the seasons 2012/13 and 2019/20. He regularly acts as a juror of renowned competitions, gives master classes and is a sought-after speaker at international conferences.

Internationally successful pianists emerged from his piano class at the Münster University of Music, who were able to achieve numerous awards and can be heard in some of the most renowned concert venues worldwide.

Pro Musica I – Meisterkurs-Abschlusskonzert Klavier

Falko Hönisch Falko Hönisch |

In diesem Jahr stellen wir alle Abschlusskonzerte der verschiedenen Meisterkurse mit Dozentinnen und Dozenten und jungen Künstlerinnen und Künstlern aus aller Welt unter den Titel: Pro Musica

Denn diese Aspirantinnen und Aspiranten leben und brennen für die Musik und widmen ihr sich ein paar Tage im inspirierenden Umfeld der Stadt Sankt Goar, zwischen den Burgen Katz und Maus, zu Füßen der Burg Rheinfels, unweit der Loreley, um von einem Meister oder einer Meisterin des Fachs neue Impulse vermitteln zu lassen.

Den Anfang dieses Jahr macht wieder der Pianist und Pädagoge Hardy Rittner, seines Zeichens Professor an der Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau. Denn Herr Rittner ist ein Exeget im Feld der historischen Aufführungspraxis der Klaviermusik, die der Klassik und der Romantik entspringt.

Die besonderen Instrumente aus der Zeit des Übergangs vom 19. auf das 20. Jahrhundert, die der Internationalen Musikakademie Sankt Goar dafür zu Verfügung stehen, ermöglichen es den jungen Musikerinnen und Musikern in die pianistische Klangwelt der Romantik eintauchen zu können.

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. 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. 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.“

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.

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.