Moritz Winkelmann

While the Stuttgarter Zeitung emphasizes the “enormous expressiveness” of Moritz Winkelmann’s piano playing, the Hildesheimer Zeitung described him as a “pianist personality”. Moritz Winkelmann performs internationally and is a prizewinner of the International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn. He has shared the stage with Itzhak Perlman, Arabella Steinbacher, the Quatuor Ébène, Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfram Christ, among others, and has performed as a soloist with the Bonn Beethoven Orchestra, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, the Kurpfalz Chamber Orchestra and the New York Classical Players. The Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung wrote about his performance of Liszt’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Orchestra of the Theatre für Niedersachsen: “The musical intensity of this exceptional artist turns the composition into a sound thriller of the finest kind.”
 
Moritz Winkelmann is currently recording all 32 piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven for the Berlin Classics label. will be completed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death. The first edition was released on 31 May 2024, about which Pizzicato magazine wrote: “Each individual sonata has a life of its own and thrives on very lively, communicative playing. Unlike the many intellectual or reserved interpretations of so-called `wise men and women´, Winkelmann’s Beethoven is direct and straightforward, it engages the listener immediately. Nothing in Winkelmann’s Beethoven seems contrived or overblown. Rather than showing any hint of sentimentality, his playing is penetrating and pulsating at every moment, turning each individual sonata into a listening experience. The pianist, who almost treats Beethoven like a friend in his playing, combines historically informed performance practice with a classical, fluid approach almost unnoticed, so that accents and flowing melodics, expressivity and clear lines are always in balance and complement each other in the most beautiful way in the spirit of Beethoven’s music and his humanism.”
 
Haenssler Classic already released a recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s last three sonatas as well as Helmut Lachenmann’s Wiegenmusik (1963) and Marche Fatale (2017) in 2022. This album was Fono Forum’s recommendation of the month: “Extremely beautiful in sound, performed with a slender, modulated and breathing tone, these sonatas sound as if they are breaking free from a prison in order to proclaim their human message to a world increasingly in need of emotional help.” The album received Opus Klassik nominations in the categories “Instrumentalist of the Year”, “Solo Recording of the Year” and “Young Artist of the Year.”

His 1st prize at the Richard Laugs Competition in Mannheim was followed by his debut at the Rheingau Music Festival. His international engagements took him to Carnegie Hall in New York, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, the Slovakian Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava, the Rosengarten in Mannheim, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart and the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, as well as to the Festivals of Schwetzingen, Schleswig-Holstein, Ravinia in Chicago and Music@Menlo in California. In addition to Europe and the USA, his concert tours regularly take him to China and Japan. He has made radio recordings in collaboration with SWR Kultur, WDR, DR Copenhagen, WBJC Baltimore Classical Radio and WFMT Chicago, as well as television broadcasts on ZDF. Moritz Winkelmann was recently heard on SWR2 Treffpunkt Klassik extra, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and the RONDO podcast.

After receiving piano lessons from his grandfather, Prof. Gerhard Wilhelm, and the piano teachers Marianne Bender and Yukiko Naito, Moritz Winkelmann completed his basic studies with Prof. Michael Hauber at the Musikhochschule in Mannheim. He later received a full scholarship from the DAAD and the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes to study at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore with the legendary Leon Fleisher, where he graduated with honors. Ferenc Rados and Marisa Somma have also had a special influence on his artistic development.

Moritz Winkelmann is a former scholarship holder of the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, is artistic director of the concert series Klassik im Klösterle in Weil der Stadt and winner of the Mozart Prize of the Stuttgart Mozart Society. He initially taught at the Musikschule Konservatorium in Bern. He then held a position in the academic staff of the HMDK in Stuttgart. In 2021, Moritz Winkelmann was appointed Professor of Piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim. He has returned to the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart since the winter semester of 2024. He holds international masterclasses and has been a jury member at international competitions.

Photo: Co Merz

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