Born: Germany

The German pianist, Ernst Breidenbach, studied with Werner Hoppstock (piano) and Rainer Hoffmann (piano chamber music) at the Akademie für Tonkunst in Darmstad as well as with Aloys Kontarsky and Günter Ludwig in Köln. In 1975 he made his first broadcast productions and concerts with the flutist Veronika Schäfer. In 1976 he won the 2^nd prize at the Bundeswettbewerb der Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Konservatorien, Akademien und Hochschulinstitute der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (federal competition of the working group of the conservatoires, academies and university institutes of the Federal Republic of Germany). In 1980 he won the culture prize of the Stadt Dreieich and scholarship of the Hermann-Haake Stiftung Ludwigsburg.

In 1981 Ernst Breidenbach made his debut as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto in E flat major KV 482 under the baton of Mathias Husmann in Darmstadt. His musical partnerships as soloist and in chamber music - with Johannes-Matthias Michel (Kunstharmonium) and in Lieder with the lyric tenor Markus Schäfer - led to interest in wider repertoire, and since 1992 to the publication of more than 12 CD's (appeared on the labels: Cadenza, CPO, ifo, NCA, Signum), which received outstanding reviews and honours and are played by numerous German and European broadcasting stations. Thus MDR dedicated in November 2006 a programme to Sigfrid Karg-Elert's Lieder.

With Johannes-Matthias Michel, Ryoko Morooka and Mark Richli, Ernst Breidenbach could be heard often in recent years was in Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle together with renowned singers, such as Carolina Bengtsdotter-Ljung, Annette Kraus, Christine Esser, Britta Schwarz, Johannes Kaleschke, Mikail Agafonov, Thomas Jesatko, Markus Mattheis, Peter Schüler and others. He has made homself a name as performer of new music, and was invited to the “Forum Neue Musik” as well as to productions of of the Hessischen Rundfunks, with which it exerts itself as soloist with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt under the baton of Lucas Vis, with members "Ensemble Modern" under Frank Ollu and, likewise as soloist, he produced and performed 33KurzStücke for 3 keyboards and a pianist of the composer Reinhold Finkbeiner. The recording of this work appeared on the label Cadenza.

Ernst Breidenbach has appeared many cities of Germany, in France, Tschechien, Austria and the USA. In coming seasons a recital of Lieder by Sigfrid Karg-Elert in Leipzig and piano concertos of J.S. Bach are planned. New recordings were recently published: selection of Lieder by Max Reger (NCA) with Markus Schäfer, as well as Vol.4 of the piano works of Sigfrid Karg-Elert (CPO).

Source: Ernst Breidenbach Website (Photos by Thomas Klewar); English translation by Aryeh Oron (June 2007)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (June 2007)

Ernst Breidenbach: Short Biography | Recordings of Non-Vocal Works

Links to other Sites

Ernst Breidenbach (Official Website) [German]

Ernst Breidenbach (Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt)

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