Prof. Dr. Friedemann Eichhorn

Born in Münster (Germany) in 1971, Friedemann Eichhorn has maintained a close connection with Kronberg Academy since 2000. As a participant in the first Chamber Music Connects the World festival, he played alongside Yuri Bashmet, Eugene Istomin, Gidon Kremer and Boris Pergamenschikow. Friedemann Eichhorn devotes a substantial portion of his work to the development of gifted young violinists. In 2002 he was appointed to the Liszt School of Music in Weimar as one of Germany's youngest violin professors and for many years has been the Director of the Department of String Instruments and Harp there. He is also the Artistic Director of the International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists in Weimar. In addition, Friedemann Eichhorn spent many years teaching at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg. Friedemann Eichhorn was appointed as the Director of Kronberg Academy Study Programmes in 2012. The versatile soloist performs in Germany and other countries with a number of renowned orchestras that include, for example, the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and has played under the baton of Yehudi Menuhin. His repertoire includes more than 40 violin concertos ranging from Bach to Berg. His first released recordings of the complete concertos of Pierre Rode (Naxos), which he rediscovered for the concert hall, were highly acclaimed. As a chamber musician he is a welcome guest at many festivals. Friedemann Eichhorn has a keen interest in exploring a wide variety of musical idioms. His discography includes tango CDs and recordings of rarely performed works for violin and piano by Franz Liszt (with R-D Arens on Hänssler classic). Alongside his concert performances, Friedemann Eichhorn is also a committed musicologist. His doctoral thesis was on Gidon Kremer. He has written lexicon articles (e.g. for the new edition of the MGG) and edits scores for music publishers such as Schott Music. From 2002 to 2007 he was the Director of the Schlossfestspiele Zwingenberg. Friedemann Eichhorn grew up in Speyer and began his violin studies with Valery Gradow at the Academy of Music in Mannheim at the age of 16, simultaneously preparing for and completing his end-of-school examinations (Abitur) by remote study. He then went on to study with Alberto Lysy at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland, and with Margaret Pardee at the Juilliard School in New York. He subsequently studied musicology, law and codicology at the University of Mainz (graduating with a PhD). He has been the recipient of the 2005 George Enescu Medal awarded by the Romanian Cultural Institute since 2005. He plays a Nicola Gagliano violin dating from 1758.

Prof. Tomasz Tomaszewski

Tomasz Tomaszewski began his musical education in the Music School in Opole where he studied with Danuta Sujata. He graduated with distinction in 1969 Then he started working with Tadeusz Wronski and Stanislaw Kawalla at the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. He received his Master Diploma in 1976 Between 1974 and 1979 Tomaszewski took part in many masterclasses working with such eminent professors as O. Krysa, B. Druzynin, W. Marschner, J. Fournier or H. Szeryng. In 1979, thanks to the scholarship he received from the Polish Ministry of Culture, Tomasz Tomaszewski went to Leningrad to study with Boris Gutnikov and Tamara Fidler during this one-year- long Postgraduate Programme. Between 1980 and 1982, he studied once again with Wolfgang Marschner in Freiburg. In 1970, during his studies in Warsaw, Tomaszewski became a member of the Chamber Orchestra ‘Con moto ma cantabile’, then (between 1971 and 1976) the Chamber Orchestra of Warsaw Philharmonic conducted by Karol Teutsch. He performed with them - also as a soloist - in many European countries, the United States and Japan. From 1975 to 1979, he was a member and then concertmaster of the Jerzy Maksymiuk’s Polish Chamber Orchestra, with which he performed also as a soloist. Between 1974 and 1979 he was the second violinist of the Polish Quartet. The ensemble received many prizes e.g. I prize at the International Competition in Belgrad (1975) and III prize at the ARD Competition in Munich (1976). Since 1980 Tomasz Tomaszewski has been living in Germany. At the beginning he was the concertmaster of the Orchestra in Baden-Baden, then he was a member of the National Theater Orchestra in Mannheim. From 1982 to 2017 he was the first concertmaster of Deutsche Oper Orchestra in Berlin. He worked with such famous conductors as Barenboim, Sinopoli, Stein, Rattle, Tielemann, Viotti, Frübeck de Burgos, Bertini, Barszaj, Mariner, Hoogwod, Abbado, Gergiev among others. Since October 1983 he has been working at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He received the Professorship of UdK in 2002 Tomasz Tomaszewski performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. Since the beginning of his music career 35 years ago he has worked in various chamber groups: - as a long-term member and soloist of chamber orchestra ‘Philharmonische Streicher Solisten’, ‘Arte Quartett Berlin’, ‘d’Al solo al tutti’, ‘Debussy Ensemble Berlin’, ‘Stradivari Sextett Habisreutinger’, ‘European Fine Arts Trio’ - as the founder and first violinist of ‘Polish String Quartet Berlin’ - as the founder and artistic director of the chamber orchestra ‘Kammersolisten der Deutschen Oper Berlin’ - as the founder and first violinist of ‘Salon Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin’ - as the concertmaster and artistic advisor of ‘Baltic Neopolis Orchestra’. Tomasz Tomaszewski is the initiator and Artistic Director of the festival ‘Silesian Musical Summer’, created in 2002 He is also the chairman of the board of the Internationale Beethoven Gesellschaft e.V., founded in 2000 in Berlin and the founder and chairman of the Europäisches Forum Polnische Musik e.V. (European Forum of Polish Music). Tomaszewski is also the Director and Chairman of the Jury of the International Beethoven Chamber Music Competition which was taking place in the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Luslawice. Tomasz Tomaszewski is being regularly invited to be a member of jury of national and international competitions such as Internationale Wettbewerb für die Jugend in Oldenburg, International Georg Philipp Telemann Violin Competition in Poznan, National Groblicz Family Violin Competition in Cracow, ‘Violin for the best’ Competition in Szczecin, International Chamber Music Tournament in Bydgoszcz, International Witold Rowicki in memoriam Violin Competition in Zywiec or International Violin Making Competition in Cremona. Tomasz Tomaszewski is a two-time winner of the Polish National Record Prize ‘Fryderyk’ - for the recordings of Chopin and Debussy’s Piano Trios with ‘European Fine Arts Trio’ and the recordings of music by Pawel Lukaszewski and Mikolaj Gorecki with ‘Baltic Neopolis Orchestra’ where he performed as a conductor and soloist. Recently, he has received an extremely prestigious award - PREIS DER DEUTSCHEN SCHALLPLATEN KRITIK - for the CD ‘Poland Abroad’ recorded with ‘Polish String Quartet Berlin’, considered the best production of 2019 in the Chamber Music genre. In 1998 Tomasz Tomaszewski received the Golden Cross of Merit from the President of Poland for his outstanding artistic achievements and promotion of Polish culture abroad. In the same year he received the title of Kammervirtuose from the Senator of Culture in Berlin. Tomasz Tomaszewski is the Honorary Citizen of Opole (Poland)and Tortorici (Sicily).

Prof. Ilja Scheps

The Russian pianist Ilja Scheps studied under Prof. Lev Vlassenko and Prof. Ewgeni Schenderowitsch at the famous Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he later taught himself. From 1982, he performed for ten years as a soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic, appearing both as a soloist and with many prominent singers and instrumentalists. Numerous guest appearances have taken Ilja Scheps to the USA, Australia, China, Israel, Italy, Malta, New Zealand, Spain, Turkey, Hungary, among others. Since 1992, Ilja Scheps has lived in Germany. He taught for a long time at the universities of music in Rostock and Dortmund, as well as at the Music Academy in Darmstadt. Since 2003, he has been a professor at the University of Music in Cologne/Aachen, leading numerous international masterclasses for pianists, co-founding and serving as artistic director for many years at the Paderewski Piano Academy in Bydgoszcz (Poland). Additionally, Ilja Scheps has been appointed as a visiting professor at several universities in China. Students of Prof. Scheps have won prizes at numerous piano competitions and have been signed exclusively to record companies such as “Sony” – Classic and “Universal” Records. Prof. Ilja Scheps is a sought-after jury member at major international piano competitions such as “Top of the world” and “Grieg” Piano Competition in Norway, Shenzhen Piano Concerto Competition, and China Int. Piano Competition in Xiamen (China), Chopin Piano Competition in Darmstadt (Germany), piano competitions in Madrid and Campillos in Spain, Concours International de Piano “Orchestra’Sion” Istanbul (Turkey), “Int’l German Piano Award” in Frankfurt am Main, as well as at the Int. Piano Competition MozArte in Aachen (Germany). Solo concerts with Ilja Scheps as well as concerts with orchestras, prominent singers, and instrumentalists are enthusiastically celebrated by audiences all over the world. Prof. Scheps teaches at the Talent Music Academy in Brescia (Italy), the international music academy Anton Rubinstein Akademie in Düsseldorf (Germany), as well as the Beethoven Conservatory in Tegelen (Netherlands). In addition to earlier recordings with companies such as “Melodia”, “MCA” (USA), and “Le Chant du Monde” (France), Ilja Scheps has added new CDs with companies such as “Deutsche Welle – classic”, “Coriolan” (Teldec), “EMC-Records”, and “CPO”.

Prof. Alexander Schimpf

The musical publications called Alexander Schimpf an exceptional pianist early on in his career. In 2020, his long awaited first CD production with orchestra was published by CAvi music, documenting his long-term cooperation with Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie. For this transparent recording of the Mozart Piano Concertos K. 413-415 with a variable string lineup (under concert master Gabriel Adorján), Alexander Schimpf added his own stylistically confident cadenzas, which makes his personal involvement with Mozart audible in a special way. After success in renowned competitions in Bonn (German Music Competition 2008), Vienna (1st prize International Beethoven Competition 2009) and Cleveland/USA (1st prize Cleveland International Piano Competition 2011), Mr. Schimpf established himself as a sought after soloist on multiple continents. Despite his meteoric international success, he shows a remarkable calm, stating: “I am in no hurry with these things; they should get to take the time they need.” His artistic development is founded, just as his interpretations, on the aspiration of a lasting significance. In addition to his involvement with the classical repertoire, Mr. Schimpf regularly takes a stand for modern and contemporary music. Over the past several years he has been responsible for about 30 premiere performances of solo and chamber music works. Born in Göttingen in 1981, Alexander Schimpf graduated from his studies with Wolfgang Manz and Bernd Glemser. Later on, pianists Cécile Ousset and Janina Fialkowska were important influences. Since 2009, under the labels of GENUIN and Oehms classics, three solo CDs including works by Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, and others, were published. In 2013, Alexander Schimpf was presented with the ”Bavarian State Award for the Advancement of the Arts” in Munich. Invitations to piano recitals and solo performances with orchestras led him to perform in numerous German cities (among them Gasteig München, Konzerthaus Berlin, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kölner Philharmonie, NDR Hannover, Beethovenhaus Bonn, Heidelberger Frühling, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele) as well as Zankel Hall/Carnegie Hall in New York City, Auditorium du Louvre and Salle Cortot in Paris, Konzerthaus Vienna, the Marinskij Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid. Radio recordings of his concerts were made for, BR, NDR, SWR, ORF, Radio France, and more. His extensive tenure in the United States brought him work as a soloist with multiple symphony orchestras, as well as recitals in New York City, Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, among others. In addition to performances in most European countries, he performed in China, Taiwan and Vietnam as well as multiple times in South America. As chamber musician, he collaborated with violinist Christian Tetzlaff, violist Nils Mönkemeyer, cellist Julian Steckel, baritone Thomas E. Bauer and the Armida Quartett, among many others. In 2016 he was appointed to be professor for piano at the HMTM Hannover (Germany).