Biography
- June 3, 2017February 2, 2024
- by christoph
" 'Talent of the Century' or 'Exceptional Talent' – there truly is no lack of superlatives for percussionist Christoph Sietzen."
“(…) he took up position at a marimba and coaxed from it sounds of rapturous fragility.”
(Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, New York Times)
“…this most questing of younger percussionists.“
(Richard Whitehouse, Grammophone)
Christoph Sietzen has been praised by the media as an outstanding talent – a refreshingly natural musician noted for his technical mastery and powerful stage presence. Having made his Salzburg Festival debut aged 12, Christoph Sietzen has subsequently been awarded ICMA (International Classical Music Awards) Young Artist Award and was named Rising Star for the 2017/18 season by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO). Furthermore, Christoph received an OPUS KLASSIK for Newcomer of the Year 2019.
The 2023 - 24 season sees Christoph make his Cleveland Orchestra debut with the world premiere of Johannes Maria Staud’s percussion concerto, Whereas the Reality Trembles, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. He will also bring Staud’s concerto to Vienna Symphony for its Austrian premiere. Also this season, Christoph brings the world premiere of Glanert’s Percussion Concerto to the Arctic Philharmonic at the Bodø BEAT festival. Other orchestral highlights include Kammerakademie Potsdam and Ancient Academy of Music in Vienna and Viersen. Christoph will perform recitals with Motus Percussion at Klangspuren Schwaz, the Wave Quartet at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and an organ duo with Christian Schmitt at Musikverein Graz, amongst others.
"Awesome technique, unrelenting intensity, tremendous power, breath-taking speed, idiosyncratic presence and a profound musicality would be some of the superlatives needed to describe the talent of the Luxembourgish-Austrian percussionist Christoph Sietzen."
Christoph regularly performs at prestigious venues such as Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Salzburg’s Great Festival Hall and Mozarteum, Romanian Atheneum in Bucharest, Philharmonie Luxembourg, London’s Barbican Centre, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Müpa Budapest, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Palau de la Música Barcelona, Stockholm Konserthuset, Bozar Brussels, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Suntory Hall in Tokyo as well as at festivals like Salzburg or Grafenegg.
His orchestral collaborations include the Bavarian, Austrian and Polish Radio Symphony Orchestras, Gürzenichorchester Köln, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg as well as the Academy of Ancient Music with conductors such as Francois-Xavier Roth, Marin Alsop, Markus Poschner, Alondra de la Parra, Ilan Volkov, Howard Griffiths, Yutaka Sado, Frank Strobel, Alexander Liebreich and Cristian Mandeal.
Committed to expanding the existing percussion repertoire, Christoph’s projects include new works by Georg Friedrich Haas, Andrea Tarrodi, Helmut Schmidinger, Emmanuel Séjourné, Ivan Boumanns, Jakob Gruchmann, Alexander Mullenbach, Christoph Ehrenfellner, Ingo Ingensand und Alexander Wagendristel as well as Stewart Copeland (formerly of the rock band “The Police”), all of whom have composed for him.
His 2017 solo album “Attraction” received the Pizzicato Supersonic Award, describing the recording as “a stupendous solo performance in every respect”. His first concerto recording featuring concerti by Avner Dorman and Einojuhani Rautaavara was followed by his most recent album „Silence", released by Sony Classical in September 2019 covering solo repertoire as well as collaborations with Clemens Hagen, Bogdan Bacanu and the Academy of Ancient Music. Christoph also has a rich discography with The Wave Quartet.
Christoph was born in Salzburg in 1992. He started learning percussion at the age of six, double bass at the age of eight and later studied at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz with Bogdan Bacanu (Marimba) and Leonhard Schmidinger (percussion) as well as with Josef Gumpinger. He also followed his passion for the harpsichord to particularly focus on Baroque repertoire. From 2014-2019 Christoph held a teaching position at Vienna’s University for Music and the Performing Arts and from 2020 at his Alma Mater, where he is professor since 2023.
Christoph is a member of the marimba ensemble The Wave Quartet founded by Bogdan Bacanu in 2008, and initiated the percussion ensemble Motus Percussion. Christoph plays Adams Musical Instruments.
For the most up-to-date biography, please contact Askonas Holt. This biography should not be edited without permission. September 2023