Prof. Christoph Schickedanz

Christoph Schickedanz, born 1969 in Darmstadt, Germany, began his multifaceted concert career after receiving awards as soloist and chamber music interpreter at various competitions in Europe (Berlin, Caltanissetta, Freiburg, Heerlen, Munich, Sion) and the USA (Indiana, California). Performances in German centres such as Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich and Hamburg were complemented by concert invitations in Europe, Asia and North America.

In addition to recordings and productions for the BR, DLF, HR, SWR, WDR, Deutschlandfunk Cologne and Deutschlandradio Berlin, his work as a performer is now documented with more than 60 works on CD for the labels Audite, Centaur, cpo and telos. In addition to the cultivation of the tandard repertoire, he is particularly committed to unjustly neglected composers – predominantly of the late romantic period in the German-speaking cultural area, as evidenced by his collaboration on first editions and numerous first recordings of various works – e.g. by Wilhelm Grosz, Louis Gruenberg, Richard Franck, Ernst Kanitz, Egon Kornauth, Ernst Krenek, Felix Petyrek, Julius Röntgen or Felix Weingartner.

Since the release of his debut CD with works of the Munich School, which was described by the magazine Fono Forum as "A recording that sets standards. his lively recording activity received great attention from the press and critics. His recording of the 6 solo sonatas and partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach, which was released by Audite in 2018 and nominated for the 2019 International Classical Music Awards, has recently received special recognition. Also the reviewers of the German (Audio 10/2018: "a timeless, recommendable recording", Fono Forum 1/2019: "...a recording of convincing individuality..." and international (Gramophone, Great Britain 11/2018 – Opus Klassiek, Netherlands and Pizzicato, Luxembourg 8/2018 each – American Record Guide, USA1/2019) press paid special tribute to this interpretation.

In addition, the recording of the duo works by Johannes Brahms, published with the Japanese-Canadian pianist Chiharu Iinuma on the US label Centaur, received outstanding international attention. The renowned British Gramophon Magazin commented on the violinist: „He is an elegant artist who pays keen attention to shadings and details, uses vibrato with restraint and shows more interest in conveying the music's intimacy than making big, Brahmsian statements." and concludes his review with the remark: "Whatever they touch, Schickedanz and Iinuma are outstanding champions of youthful and seasoned Brahms."

The current double-CD release of all of the duo works by the composer Friedrich Gernsheim, recorded for the label cpo in coproduction with Deutschlandfunk Köln with the pianist Ernst Breidenbach, received the greatest attention from the media (including Welt am Sonntag, Klassik heute, MusicWeb International) and became practical broadcast to all classical channels in the country.

Christoph Schickedanz received his training first at the MHS Freiburg with Jörg Hofmann and as a DAAD scholarship holder at Indiana University Bloomington with Franco Gulli, where he taught as Associate Instructor for Violin from 1995. After completing his concert exams, he began teaching in Germany as assistant to his former teacher Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the UdK Berlin. Further stations followed as a lecturer at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and as a visiting professor at the UdK Berlin. In 2004 he finally accepted a position as professor at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. In addition to regular teaching activities in Germany, he was repeatedly invited to give master classes in China, Cuba, Italy, Finland, Switzerland, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine and the USA. Since 2018 he also teaches at the Music Academy in Brescia/Italy.

Graduates of his violin class are members of more than 30 orchestras in Germany and abroad, e.g. in Berlin, Dortmund, Essen, Hamburg, Hanover, Leipzig and Munich, or already teach themselves at important pedagogical institutes in their home countries, e.g. in China at the conservatories in Shanghai and Wuhan as well as at the Tongji University Shanghai.

As a passionate chamber music interpreter, Schickedanz has been a violinist with the Gililov Quartet Berlin (formerly the Philharmonic Piano Quartet Berlin) until its dissolution in recent years. He is currently a member of the Johannes Kreisler Trio.

Christoph Schickedanz plays an instrument made in Trieste around 1855 by the Italian master Giovanni Dollenz with a bow from the Peccatte School around 1860.

After many years of experience – also as an interpreter of contemporary music – Christoph Schickedanz decided in 2018 to publish his first own works and has since enjoyed growing popularity from his music colleagues and increasingly also from the public. The radio station Hessischer Rundfunk has broadcast his 2020 premiered “Quintet” for trumpet, violin, viola, cello and piano several times. At this year's SIMM composition competition in Milan, Italy he reached the finals with his work “Suite piccola” for harpsichord as the only non-Italian candidate without any connection to the jury or the organization of the competition. In addition, his work “Rondo” for piano solo received the highest rating in its category at the “2nd World Championship in Composition” in Vienna., Austria.

In his compositions he does not follow current compositional styles or schools, nor does he orientate himself stylistically on expectations, conditions or even dogmas in order to satisfy an aesthetic owed to the Zeitgeist, but in his works he simply reflects many years of experience as an interpreter in a highly independent individual tonal language.