Violoncello

 

MARIA MAGDALENA WIESMAIER, VIOLINCELLO

 

Maria Magdalena Wiesmaier received her professional training as cellist at the Leopold Mozart Konservatorium in her native Augsburg, at the Liszt Academy of Music in Weimar and thereafter in London where she gained an ARCM (performing) Diploma from the Royal College of Music. Her teachers have numbered such distinguished names as Christopher Bunting, Raphael Wallfisch and Amaryllis Fleming. Her wide-ranging studies also included conducting under Lawrence Leonard at Morley College in London and three semesters of Architecture study at Weimar’s Bauhaus University, laying foundations for the unique inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural projects that characterise Maria’s career

 

As a classical cellist she has performed the instrument’s core repertoire in countless recitals throughout the German-speaking world, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Japan with bold programming ranging from Bach through to Kurtag – often with a particular emphasis, for example Hungarian composers, British Music, composers persecuted by the Nazis, Bach and Improvisation, Russian composers such as Gubaidulina and Ustvolskaja etc. Her outstanding qualities as concert-artist are evident in her inter-disciplinary explorations of Music with Art, Poetry and Architecture in widely different settings. In her regular appearances with the internationally acclaimed actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, placing the cello’s rich repertoire in the context of literature from different periods in venues as varied as the Burgtheater Vienna, Konzerthaus Berlin, Alte Oper Frankfurt etc, and in her exploration through improvisation and free composition of Arabic maqamat and the music of Bach together with the oud-player Nabil Hilaneh in the duo Damascus- Berlin.

 

Concerts have featured appearances with Damascus-Berlin at the German Embassy, Manama Bahrain and at the Jewish Museum in Berlin; performances of all Bach’s cello suites in a variety of architectural settings for the MDR
Musiksommer, Ligeti’s Cello concerto at the Impuls Festival of New Music; Schumann’s Cello Concerto at the Kaisersaal Erfurt; Musica Reanimata – Holocaust Memorial – at the Konzerthaus Berlin with works by Samuel Adler, Heinrich Kaminski, Ursula Mamlok for the Deutschlandfunk, the German National Broadcasting Service; Tchaikovsky’s ‘Rococo Variations’ at Schloss Weikersheim; Sephardic Song and works by Ernest Bloch at the International Conference for Jewish Music Today in London; Messaien’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ & Brahms’ Clarinet Trio at the Gendarmenmarkt Chamber Music Festival; Brahms and Beethoven cello sonatas with Antonis Anissegos at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge; her own concert series at Berlin’s Sophienkirche featuring her duo Damascus-Berlin and guests; a broadcast interview and performance on the Deutschlandfunk Kultur radio station featuring music from her recent CD ‘Predude & Maqam’.

 

Maria has worked as a free-lancer and soloist in a multitude of collaborative combinations such as Piano Trio, cello & Organ and also with such distinguished ensembles as the Berlin Philharmonic, Brussels Radio Orchestra and Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin. She is an active teacher of students of all levels and a recipient of numerous scholarships such as the Musikfonds Arbeitsstipendium and Deutscher Musikrat awards.

She lives with her family in Berlin. 

 

pressquotes

 

“… (Maria Magdalena Wiesmaier’s) playing is not only immaculately secure, but confident with beautiful, strong, speaking tone ..“

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

 

“…a perfectly beautiful dialogue between cello and piano…”

Thueringer Allgemeine Zeitung

 

“…a solidly -grounded technique and intelligent musicality…”

Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung

 

“…you hear this Bach differently…“

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (6xBach)

 

„…this athmosphere was musically redoubled in the outstanding playing of the cellist Maria

Wiesmaier…“

Wiesbadener Kurier (Literature and Music with Brandauer)

 

„….very virtuosic and sonorous…“

Main Echo

 

„…. a magnificent soloist…“

Wiesbadener Kurier (Literature and Music with Brandauer)

 

 

 

Kurzbiographie:

 

In Augsburg geboren, erhielt Maria Magdalena Wiesmaier mit sechs Jahren ihren ersten Cellounterricht. Sie studierte an der Hochschule für Musik ”Franz Liszt“ in Weimar und in London, wo Christopher Bunting (selber ehemaliger Schüler von Pablo Casals)und Raphael Wallfisch ihre Lehrer waren. Neben Solo und Kammermusikkonzerten in Europa und Japan, sowie Mitwirkung in diversen Festivals besteht eine lange Zusammenarbeit mit Klaus Maria Brandauer, den sie ua bei Lesungen im Burgtheater Wien, der Alten Oper Frankfurt und im Konzerthaus Berlin begleitet hat.