news 2020

November 2020Live stream concert as principal violist with the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra under Karina Canellakis

               Since moving from Frankfurt to Munich, I am happy to have been asked to play principal viola in leading orchestras here. It was a wonderful week with this fantastic orchestra and an inspiring conductor.
Here is the 
concert video 
Recording at SWR Kaiserslautern

               
				  It was great fun to play, record and 'perform' with wonderful friends and outstanding artists like Anna Sophia Dauenhauer, Wen-Sinn Yang and Lukas Maria Kuen Reger's piano quartet in A major and Dohnanyi's serenade for string trio in Kaiserslautern! Thank you to everyone who made this possible!

				 

Announcement of the 1st Hindemith International Viola Competition 2021

               The newly organized Hindemith International Viola Competition went online on November 1st after months of intensive work. Flyers and posters as well as advertising in various specialist magazines followed shortly afterwards. We are very happy to have found a great jury.

										    More about the competition you can find here.
										    

 
August 2020Concert mit Hilko Dumno in Bayreuth 

               Wesendonck-Lieder with my good friend Hilko Dumno in the Wahnfried-Villa in Bayreuth! Fantastic to play this on viola and listen to Hilko’s colourful playing on the instrument, Franz Liszt played already on! 
General rehearsal
Villa Wahnfried
Richard Wagner's grave
Villa Wahnfried
August 2020Villa Musica

               It was a great Villa Musica week at Schloss Engers with Mozart C-major quintet and Beethoven 1st Symphony for string quintet, which was a tough nut to crack due to a ‘unfinished’ arrangement. 

But at the end we had a nice version of that symphony thanks to the great help of Larissa Cidlinsky, Oliver Leonard, Gordon Lau and Akihiro Takeda! What a fantastic combo! Great musicians with a lot of humor made this week very special!

Thanks also to the Villa and to Alexander Hülshoff for many great projects, always new and inspiring ideas and amazing artists which enrich the musical development of these extremely talented young musicians! 

I am very honoured to have been invited here again! 

Six concerts in total in Engers, Mainz and Bacharach were a lot of fun for all of us especially after weeks and months of corona-related difficult times. 
Schloß Engers
all musicians of that week
Schloss Engers very early
Bacherach am Rhein
16 years Mandelring Quartet 
Hard to believe that it has been 16 years! How well I remember the beginning, when I had to learn within the first year an infinite number of new works. We had to rehearse a lot at the beginning and then it evolved into a wonderful musical and personal friendship. So many common experiences we share now after these intense and eventful years! I could write books about all the anecdotes that will link us for a lifetime! Perhaps there will be something to read about it here one day ...
              Thank you, dear Nanette, dear Sebastian, dear Bernhard!What is there more fulfilling for a violist than playing in a string quartet? Nevertheless, I have decided after all these years to go on new paths. We separated in great friendship and gratitude, but will remain musically connected. I look forward to the common chamber music projects, where I will be a guest among old friends!

Mandelring Quartett

A fulfilling life in the heart of a string quartet

Rehearsal in Capezzano in 2000

Fotoshooting 2006

Rehearsal on a USA tour 2008

unusual rehearsal at the Kuhmo Festival 2014

New from my class

Once again I am very proud of my class at the HfMDK Frankfurt: Tobias Reifland won the second prize at the Brahms competition in Pörtschach and Caspar Vinzens won the second prize at the ARD competition with the Aris Quartet! Congrats!

Master Classes

In 2017, I will give 7 master classes. As usual, Mußbach (spring academy Neustadt), Leutkirch (summer academy Leutkirch), for the second time I will be at the Starnberger Musiktagen, the Forum Artium and Allegro Vivo and for the first time at the Accademia Perosi (Italy) and Branimir Slokar Academy Ljubljana (Slovenia ). See "masterclasses" for more information.

Projects

It was a wonderful year 2016 with great festivals, masterclasses, concerts and projects! Go to "News" for some impressions of that and to "concerts" for future events. Also 2017 is again full with many great projects. I am also very proud to be asked many times since I left the quartet to be a substitute as principal violist at the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra! What an great opportunity for me to get closer to the fantastic orchestral repertoire!