silke avenhaus / piano

Emotionality paired with sense of form, sensitivity, creativity and curiosity - these are the qualities attributed by music critics to the pianist Silke Avenaus for her international concert appearances and for her more than 20 CD productions. Her solo concerts and her much-in-demand appearances in chamber music ensembles have taken Silke Avenhaus thoughout Europe, the USA and South East Asia. She has appeared in concert halls such as the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, in the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Brahms-Saal of the Wiener Musikverein, in the Philharmonie in Cologne, Munich and Berlin as well as in the Carnegie Recital Hall, New York. She has accepted invitations to the Marlboro Music Festival, to the Chamber Music Festivals in Prussia Cove and Moritzburg, to the Berliner Festwochen and to the Rheingau Music Festival, to the Salzburg Festspielen, the Lucerne Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr and to the Beethovenfest in Bonn. Silke Avenhaus has made guest appearances with the NDR Sinfony Orchestra Hamburg, the Berlin Radio Sinfony Orchestra, the German Radiophilharmonie and with the Munich Chamber Orchstra. Born in the city of Karlsruhe, Germany, Silke won a number of competitions at an early age, studied with Bianca Bodalia and Klaus Schilde (University of Music and Performing Arts Munich), György Sebök (Indiana University, Bloomington) and with Sandor Végh and Andras Schiff. Silke Avenhaus performs together with artists such as Tabea Zimmermann, Thomas Zehetmair, Benjamin Schmid, Christoph Poppen, Isabelle Faust, Marie-Luise Neunecker, Jörg Widmann, Clemens Hagen and with Sabine Meyer in the Ensemble Collage. An especially close musical affinity brought her together with Quirine Viersen and Antje Weithaas, with both of whom she has produced several CDs. Various composers have written works for which she has given first perfomances, for example Wilfried Hiller, Jörg Widmann, Magnar Aam, Akikazu Nakamura, Helmut Eder and Detlef Glanert. In only a few years Silke Avenhaus recorded more than 20 CDs with solo works, chamber music and orchestral pieces, among others for EMI, ECM, Koch, Tudor, cpo, Berlin Classics, CAvi and harmona mundi. Included in these are works for Violin and Piano by Szymanowski (with Thomas Zehetmair), Beethoven Cello sonatas (with Quirine Viersen), Schumann Violin sonatas (with Isabelle Faust), the "Quartett vom Ende der Zeit" (with the Munch-Trio and Charles Neidich), Mozart's concert aria "Ch' io mi scordi di te" (with Juliane Banse and the Munich Chamber Orchestra under Christoph Poppen), the "Concertino von Triebensee" (with the German Kammerphilharmonie), piano trios by Beethoven, Hiller and Mendelssohn (with the Munch-Trio). The CD "leggiero, pesante", recorded together with the Rosamunde Quartett and Anja Lechner and with chamber music by Silvestrow, was nominated for the Grammy Award. 200. She recorded the Brahms Piano Quintet with the Arcanto Quartet. Most recently, various CDs have appeared with solo works: First recordings of Alexander von Zemlinsky (Naxos), the "Buch der Sterne" by Wilfried Hiller as well as piano pieces by Robert Schumann and Peter Tschaikowsky. The CD-Edition consisting of Anthologies from Brahms, Schubert, Mendelssohn and French composers, produced together with Antje Weithaas on the CAvi label, is being continued. Silke Avenhaus teaches at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich and as a regular lecturer at the Villa Musica. For Silke Avenhaus, bringing "classical music" to children and young people is of special importance, whether it be with audio books for children, via workshops or taking part in the "Rhapsody in School" project initiated by Lars Vogt.