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Stephan Johannes Rieckhoff cellist |
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Born in Plochingen/Stuttgart (Germany ) in 1953, Stefan discovered happiness while « making
music » within his own family at an early age. His musical abilities were recognised at the
age of 10 and he was invited to join the two orchestras in his native town of Marburg, the Gymnase
and Kammerorchester, as First Cello. When 13
and 15 years old he entered the Bundes-wettbewerb “Jugend
musiziert competition and won his two first prizes for cello solo and for
Trio with piano. He then went
for further studies in Detmold with André Navarra and in Freiburg with Prof.
Christoph Henke. He learned
a lot from his mentors: Pierre Fournier, Janos Starker, Alexandre Stein, Werner Thomas - Mifune etc. At 23 he
was invited to play as leader of the cellos in the “Südwestdeutsches
Kammerorchester Pforzheim" under Paul Angerer. Two
years later he was invited by Rafael Kubelik to join the “Symphonieorchester
des Bayerischen Rundfunks" in Munich. He stayed there for 6
years. His life
was enlightened through meeting great artists of this period - amongst them Leonard
Bernstein – with whom he formed a relationship that had a serious influence
on his life, Mstislav Rostropovitch,
Giulini, Celibidache, Ozawa, Muti etc. All helped to nurture his passion for
playing and teaching the cello. In 1984 he
became First cello in the ’OSR, Suisse Romande Orchestra in Geneva
/Sutz. He also
performs with the Bachcollegium
München, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim and other orchestras. He also plays in chamber music groups and especially with
his pianist brother Leonhard Rieckhoff. His philosophy
of music and the cello 1. One needs to feel happy while
playing. 2. Technique needs to become so easy
that it makes room for expression and listening without restraint. In his teaching he uses: body balance and unity without clenching the
instrument (being one with the instrument), flexibility in all technical approaches
and focussing one’s energy in the right part of the body,
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