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Biography
I was born in Düsseldorf in 1971 and grew up in a family which
was
quite enthusiastic about music, as my father also works as an
orchestral musician. After having a go at the recorder and the piano, I
was finally allowed to take up the percussion at the age of 12. Soon
after this I was already playing in the symphony and wind orchestras of
my school, the music-orientated
“Georg-Herwegh-Gymnasium”
in Berlin-Hermsdorf, as well as in the big band of the music school
Berlin-Reinickendorf.
After finishing school with the Abitur exam (university entrance
qualification) and playing in various rock-pop-soul combos, I took up a
course at the UdK Berlin (University of Arts – at
that time
HdK, i.e. College of Arts) to become a secondary-school teacher of
music. After three semesters I changed my main subject to study
percussion with Thomas Lutz and Hans Ulrich. During this time I was
lucky to play as the regular timpanist in the youth orchestra of
Berlin-Reinickendorf and in the „Sibelius
orchestra“, both
conducted by Mark Poillet, where I gained valuable experience.
Following a three-year membership of the “Junge Deutsche
Philharmonie” and a one-year placement with the
“Berliner
Sinfoniker”, I was enrolled at the “Karajan
Academy”
of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1996, where I was trained by Rainer
Seegers and Franz Schindlbeck.
In 1997 I became solo timpanist at the Münchner Philharmoniker.
I play, on a temporary basis, in the big orchestras of Germany and in
internationally renowned orchestras, such as the „Super World
Orchestra“ in Japan and the „Arturo Toscanini
Orchestra“ in Italy conducted by Lorin Maazel. Since 2000 I
have
been working as a specialist lecturer for percussion and chamber music
at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. I teach at the music school
Augsburg/Nuremberg and had a teaching assignment on the subject of
kettledrums in the percussion class of Franz Lang at the College of
Music in Trossingen for 5 semesters.
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