Composition prize for menhir

On 20th January 2022, my first work for large orchestra was premiered by the Studentenphilharmonie Tübingen, conducted by Symeon Ioannidis. The corona pandemic prevented a concert directly in Tübingen, but it could be realized somewhat shortened in the Paul Gerhardt Church in Stuttgart.

The orchestra played Sigurd Jorsalfar op. 56 by Edvard Grieg and the 100th symphony in G major (military symphony) by Joseph Haydn. In between, the premiere of my piece “menhir” was heard.
During the concert, the piece was awarded the “Philharmonic Composition Prize” of the University of Tübingen, which is offered each semester to promote young musicians.

For me this means an important step into a new area of composition: the instruments beyond plucked string music have remained largely undiscovered by me so far, and I hope that after this first work there will be others to follow.

The piano – a new world opens up

I’ve been thinking about learning to play the piano for quite some time. After some attempts to learn on my own with a MIDI keyboard, all of which quickly failed, my plans became specific last winter. I realized that I actually do need an acoustic piano as well as a teacher.

So I began searching a used piano this year in spring. Eventually I found an instrument by Ibach from 1983 with a wonderful warm, vibrant sound, which proved to be a real beauty to my music room as well.

I also found a teacher, i. e. from August I am going to be taking lessons again. I have high goals, I am full of zest for action – and curious what I will be able to achieve on this new instrument…

Technical details about my piano can be found under “My instruments”.